When I walked into the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail on March 21, I was in for a surprise. I was armed with a list of general questions about the black market—mostly street prices for drugs and prostitution—but had no idea who I’d be interviewing. A jail administrator had set me up with an inmate who […]
When I walked into the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail on March 21, I was in for a surprise. I was armed with a list of general questions about the black market—mostly street prices for drugs and prostitution—but had no idea who I’d be interviewing. A jail administrator had set me up with an inmate who […]
I bought my first illegal CD a couple of Sundays ago. It did not feel wrong or illicit. I did feel like I was getting a good deal, though. Forty-one songs by Jay-Z and Nas for $5.99! Presented under the moniker of DJ Kurupt—a.k.a. the Master Jedi—it’s a mix tape, a time-honored tradition in hip-hop […]
Crystal, crank, tweak, speed, chalk, glass, tina, ice, poor man’s cocaine. Methamphetamine can be snorted through the nose, smoked in a pipe or mainlined with a syringe. Those who do it are called meth heads or tweakers, due to the jittery symptoms users experience when they’re craving meth. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says there […]
“When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns” may be a bumper sticker-ready bit of NRA rhetoric, but there is a certain logic to it: If the law prohibits gun ownership, only people who disregard the law (presumably some nasty characters) will own guns. Thing is, in Virginia at least, this is all just […]
“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 […]