Gary Police Chief Derrick Cannon, joined by Mayor Eddie Melton, speaks during a news conference announcing two drug and firearm busts on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Cocaine, heroin, guns and money were among items confiscated after two unrelated raids at different homes – one in Gary and one in Merrillville – by the Gary Police Department and its partners over the span of two days.
Cannon said the investigation and subsequent arrests were made possible with the city’s partners including the Hammond and Merrillville police departments, which aided in the investigations. Hamady said when the SWAT team burst into Jeffries’ residence he was in the process of making a batch of crack cocaine in his kitchen. He attempted to discard the drugs and tossed a bag, later determined to contain heroin, on top of the kitchen cabinets, Hamady said.As the officer was getting the bag down from on top of the cabinets, it broke open spilling the contents all over him. At the time the contents of the bag were unknown, Hamady said.
Hamady attributes some of the successes to more readily available technology including license plate readers and the city’s Real Time Crime Center. Police currently have 1,484 live video feeds into the police department and the ability to tap into 694 registered residential cameras if something were to happen near one of the cameras.