with the dope gives a glimpse of the incredible scale of the problem facing Frank Goff and his colleagues. In the first ten days of March, this mid-level delivery man for the Gangster Disciples took in $451,000.  He personally pocketed 45 grand.  How many other delivery jobs on this planet pay $1.5 million a year?

 If this story were fiction, we would now expect Frank Goff to get some kind of commendation.  Maybe even a promotion.  But three days later he got a blunt warning from his superiors: “Don't ever do that again.”  While it's true that Goff and his men recovered a dozen weapons, confiscated seven-and-a-half kilos of coke and $53,000 in cash—and shut down a major crack operation, all in one 18-hour day—that wasn't their assignment.  Their assignment was to keep crack away from the schools.  And while Goff can argue that it makes a hell of a lot more sense to go for the roots of the vine rather than plucking the grapes one at a time, his superiors don't see it that way. 

First of all, there were a total of 72 rounds blasted off in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  It's a miracle there weren't six or eight bodies on the pavement, Frank Goff's among them.  The brass isn't interested in this kind of wild-west gunplay, no matter what the results.  To make sure Goff gets the message, they order him back into uniform.  No more undercover work.  From now on he and his men will ride in marked squad cars and stick to busting teenage dealers with dime bags. 

Goff is disgusted, but not surprised.  They have a saying downtown: “Big dope, big problems.  Little dope, little problems.  No dope, no problems.”  Downtown, they look on narcotics as a swamp, a sink-hole that can suck your career under in an eye blink.  The river of money flowing through the streets, splashing over the curbs, and into the pockets of everybody in sight is unlike anything they've ever seen before.  There are opportunities for disaster at every turn.  Says Goff, “You walk in a room—you're making $45,000 a year—and there's a million dollars in cash, and the guy jumps out the window.