Authorities have dismantled the area's largest PCP ring after a two-year investigation, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Twenty-six people are being charged for selling the drug to users in Maryland, Virginia and the District, sometimes within 1,000 feet of elementary schools.
Police seized $1 million of PCP from the ring, and officials believe this may be one of the largest drug organizations in the country. Suspects from the Washington area were arrested, as well as suspects in New York and Atlanta.
It is believed that drug agents in New York would secure large amounts of PCP and ship the drug to a man in Laurel, Md., The Post reported. That man would then distribute it to a gang in Northeast D.C. that would sell it between 18th and M streets.
PCP was a popular drug in the District in the 1970s and '80s, until crack cocaine emerged, but it has made a comeback recently. Nine percent of all people arrested in the District have PCP in their system.
PCP, or phencyclidine, causes delirious highs that last for hours. There have been a series of homicides in the District committed by PCP users who suddenly turned on their friends, family or strangers.
-EMILY CARONE
