The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) claims an employee with Baltimore’s Safe Streets violence intervention program is tied to “a drug trafficking organization” associated with numerous shootings in the city.
The employee, 43-year-old Terrell Allen, is charged “with distribution and possession with intent to distribute drugs.” The ATF alleges that “Allen was overseeing a drug organization operating in the Latrobe Homes area.”
According to The Baltimore Sun, the Safe Streets program “hires ex-offenders to use their credibility on the streets to mediate disputes and prevent violence, out of the view of law enforcement, and city officials say it has been successful in cutting down violence in historically troubled areas.”
Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen praised the program, saying, “This model works because of our employees. Safe Streets hires many individuals with criminal backgrounds, giving returned citizens a second chance by supporting the very neighborhoods they are from. Our outreach workers have truly walked in the shoes of the people they serve.”
Allen’s alleged use of Safe Streets’ offices and property for drug operations is not the first blemish on the group’s reputation. In 2015, Baltimore suspended part of their Safe Streets anti-violence program after members in one office were arrested for alleged possession of guns and cocaine.
On July 14, 2015, the Sun reported that police investigated a Safe Streets’ East Baltimore office after responding to a robbery call at “the intersection of Hillen and Forrest streets.” A victim told police that “He was just robbed at gunpoint by two men in a gray SUV,” and police later found “the vehicle parked in the 2300 block of E. Monument and saw men dart inside the Safe Streets office.”
Police raided the Safe Streets’ office and found guns, drugs, and drug paraphernalia. They eventually arrested nine people, among whom were two Safe Streets’ employees.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.