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The North Boys gang originated in the JonesboroNorth housing project in southeast Atlanta and consists mostly of juveniles who grew up there, police said.
Atlanta police plan to target gangs selling drugs around the city in undercover investigations and then raid them, said Lt. W.W. Tripp, commander of the Guns and Gangs Task Force. Friday's bust was the result of a two-month investigation by the task force, Red Dogs and Weed and Seed police - special drug squads of Atlanta police and GBI agents.
Instead of making random undercover drug buys, police are targeting gangs , Tripp said. "Our whole aim is very precise and very specific," Tripp said. "We're like a surgeon going in and cutting out a bad problem and not taking the whole arm."
Gang members band together to sell drugs and they "stand on the street and harass people coming into the housing projects," Tripp said.
Residents of the projects, Tripp added, "complain they can't even have visitors. We're trying to improve the quality of life for people who have to live there."
But some residents at JonesboroNorth say their project is quiet and that the gang is really just a group of neighborhood boys with a name.
"They [the police] are out here wasting their time," said Patricia Brown. "Instead of worrying about this little bit of drugs, they need to clean up out here - plant a few grass seeds."
Two of the handguns, the money and some marijuana were found in one apartment.
