“Operation Hook-Up” began in the summer of 2006 when Fifeville neighbors began calling the Charlottesville Police Department to complain about alleged acts of prostitution in Tonsler Park on Cherry Avenue. Word worked its way to Sergeant Marc Brake and, after problems were verified through surveillance and foot patrol efforts, a few undercover officers, including Joseph […]
“Operation Hook-Up” began in the summer of 2006 when Fifeville neighbors began calling the Charlottesville Police Department to complain about alleged acts of prostitution in Tonsler Park on Cherry Avenue. Word worked its way to Sergeant Marc Brake and, after problems were verified through surveillance and foot patrol efforts, a few undercover officers, including Joseph […]
We know you’re wondering: How did we find all this information about the black market? The short answer: by asking everyone we could think of who might know something. First, we thought of the cops. And, indeed, police know a lot about illegal commerce. It’s just that they’re not always willing to share that information. […]
I am with a colleague at a gun show in Richmond, talking to an ex-cop selling stun guns. I’m looking for evidence of the so-called gun show loophole: the fact that licensed dealers must conduct background checks on purchasers of guns at gun shows, but private individuals can sell their guns at the same shows […]
It’s not hard to guess which are the most popular forms of black market documents. Even the most straightlaced of us have heard that folks of the under-21 variety go crazy for any fake ID that will get them into a Corner bar. A Corner bartender says he’s seen all variety of fake IDs in […]
Thirty years ago, it was more common to arrange sexual favors through a direct trade for narcotics, according to an inmate at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail. But Charlottesville’s finest don’t deal with direct trades; rather, undercover officers such as the Charlottesville Police Department’s Joe Brown need to ensure that suspected prostitutes agree to a specific […]
For all the political bluster about how illegal labor hurts Americans and the economy, it’s extremely easy for undocumented workers to become victims in the employment system they’re supposedly milking. Think about it—to whom can they complain? Tim Freilich, legal director of the Virginia Justice Center, one of the only organizations that represents illegal workers […]
The following prices and comments were obtained in an hour-long interview with four female sophomores and one male senior. All five frequently use at least some drugs. The male arrived about 20 minutes after the interview started with a quantity of marijuana, which was quickly loaded in an ornate glass water bong and smoked by […]
By some definitions, virtually everything you pick up on the black market could fall under the “entertainment” umbrella—isn’t that what those lines of coke and side-alley blowjobs are about? To narrow the frame, however, we let those mainstays of human misbehavior live on their own and instead focused on electronics and events, from the bootlegs […]
Robin Williams, no stranger to nose candy, once said, “Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you’re making too much money.” Well, “there’s a lot of money in this town,” an inmate at our local jail told me. Now in his early 30s, he’s been selling coke in Charlottesville since he was 14. It turns […]
More than a month after the city announced it would spend nearly $1 million on two new ambulances and staff for its own emergency-rescue system, city officials are saying the money may instead