Summer 2024: heroin dealer in Meaningful

Laws were about to change and we had 3 months to gather enough evidence on the cities number one heroin dealer. I had my best friend help me on the recon for this one because it was very dangerous. I started with a documentary on National Geographic that actually interviewed my alleged heroin dealer. Funny I later discovered the guy they interviewed was actually one of the henchmen and not the actual dealer. The main guy was a young college graduate, very intelligent, he claimed the reason he sold drugs on this scale wasn’t for money but the thrill, he found it entertaining. I feel he was so smart and possibly adhd or something that only a job like this could interest him. I was assigned the SE neighborhood where there were reports of connections at certain places. Mainly we started within a 6 block radius of known drug dealing places. All were bars except for a pizza restaurant and a McDonald’s. My partner and I would stake out each area checking for certain clues and taking pictures of graffiti to scan later for gang activity. Going undercover at dive bars and sitting in parking lots with zombie drug people, walking the neighborhoods at night trying to blend in. One point a gang member greeted us, sent to check us out, I didn’t even realize it till later. At each bar we tested and took samples off the bathroom surfaces and toilets. One time I opened the lid of the toilet and found $1400 worth of pure heroin. Showing my friend discreetly at the bar and then driving to the sheriffs office in his car was hilarious as he was scared lol. Another time we went to check out a possible cook house. As we drove up his car got stuck in the road, they had intentionally broken pot holes in the street and driveway so police or whoever would have a harder time in their area. Pigeons were sent out with warnings and once a friendly old lady neighbor came out and helped me escape. The graffiti pictures picked had several hits, about 7, the rest were deceased gang members and tributes to people who had overdosed. We started seeing patterns and discovered one graffiti tag that matched a suspect who ran a tattoo parlor. I did some research and this guy had several connections with known suspects. I watched the footage of the the documentary and found the tattoo place was the building in the video. I started focusing on the owner and I had to get the smoking gun though. I got special surveillance equipment, James Bond stuff like pen cameras and recorders and video glasses with night vision. It was dangerous to go into the tattoo shop and police couldn’t do it so I was tasked with getting the footage inside undercover. My friend was too scared lol. So I booked an appointment to get a tattoo and to my surprise and luck the booth I was placed in, I looked up and saw a picture of the matching graffiti tag of the dealer! How lucky?! I was smiling the whole time I was getting inked. The footage was perfect. Three months of evidence was enough to pin point the guy. He turned himself in for a lesser sentence, giving up his connections to Mexico. He was released and is now working as a geologist/topographer. Turns out he was very scared himself and actually had set up operations in the tattoo shop which was in rival gang territory, knowing he’d be safer in his enemies area because the Mexican gang suppliers weren’t going to enter a rivals territory. Little hint, never wear all blue or all red in a shady neighborhood. It’s a gamble to who’s colors your wearing. I was again shocked because of the theme of these guys turning themselves in and getting away without much sentencing. I guess the government is more interested in the bigger fish of where the drugs are coming from, the original source. The FBI also told me if I continued to investigate that it would be a huge breakthrough I discovered but I would most likely have to move, change my name, go into the witness protection program. I turned down that option along with the $300,000 reward and fame. I did get a smaller reward but I didn’t want to relocate and change my name, possibly risking my own friends and family. The neighborhood now is getting better, not perfect but recovering. Little tip… if your at a place and you see graffiti that has something to with tomato/spaghetti sauce- then your at a heroin dealing spot. Good adventure.