Word: phoenixed
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Ecstasy came to Phoenix just as quietly. It came in small bags brought by friends to share at secretive, insular clubs around the city. It was nothing big, just something that like-minded friends would pass among themselves while dancing away weekends. "We didn't even know it was here," said a Phoenix narcotics cop. "It is not a 911 drug. Parents would drop their kids off at clubs thinking everything was O.K. because they didn't serve alcohol...
...secrets could not be contained. About two years ago, the rave scene in Phoenix began to grow. "It used to be everyone that showed up dressed alike and thought alike. Everyone knew each other. It was sort of a New Age hippie thing. Very cool, very mellow. No problems," says an already nostalgic twentysomething local. "Then it just started to grow. People from the university would show up. Jocks would be there. It was, like, everybody was doing it." As word of the raves spread, police began to hear that a new drug scene was sweeping the city...
...Gravano, Papa was the swaggering leader of his own gang of young Arizona toughs. According to police, Papa was one of the founding members of a group that went by various names-- Hitler's Youth, White Power or Devil Dogs--purportedly a racist high school gang that terrorized the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. In truth, police sources say, the gang was really a steroid-laced football team that went bad from lack of direction. "They were bad, but they weren't racist. Hell, there were even black members," says a police source...
Until that time, police drug busters had been focused on the flood of pot and cocaine coming across the border from Mexico. But as the ecstasy scene broke into the mainstream, the cops started to take action. Phoenix police sent in a young female undercover detective to start making buys. "We had to tell her to stop, she was getting so much," said a law-enforcement source. They were also surprised by how widespread the use of the drug was among young suburban kids. "Only 1,000 ecstasy pills were seized in all of Arizona the previous year...
With demand soaring, police say, the operation run by Papa made the leap from being one of hundreds of small rings to importing the drug in quantity. A Phoenix police spokesman explained that during the department's surveillance, Papa and his friends "changed the methods under which they operated after learning from Sammy. They became more aggressive, showed a lot of force and were more organized. It was almost like they were being schooled." They also began to use Gravano's name to intimidate other dealers and took to carrying guns. Almost overnight, police say, the gang became...