<!--Rick Pfeiffer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Rick Pfeiffer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com">rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
Edward “Ned” Parmer knew when Falls police came through the door of the Elks Club on Highland Avenue Thursday night that something “wasn’t right.”
“I seen all you white dudes comin’,” Parmer told Falls Police Narcotics Detective Shawn Larrabee, “and I knew something wasn’t right.”
Seconds later, Parmer was in custody on federal charges that he was involved in the distribution and possession of drugs as a member of the Bloods street gang.
“As soon we entered (the club), he was walking toward us,” Narcotics Detective Steve Reed said. “He made an attempt to run out the side door, but I grabbed him and took him into custody.”
Parmer, 31, who lists a local address of 442 Seventh St., has been on the run for more than eight months since he was indicted in mid-March for his drug dealing with the Bloods. He was among 26 gang members charged in a combination of state and federal grand jury indictments and complaints that included drug and weapons charges.
On March 12, Falls cops, aided by a small army of federal, state, county and local police agencies, moved through the city executing arrest and search warrants in an operation code-named “Niagara Blood Clot.”
The 15-month investigation targeted Falls-based members of the notorious and violent Bloods street gang. It also, in the words of investigators, “morphed” to include some locally based gangs including Highland World, 9th & Wild and 18 Block.
Parmer was not picked up in March and word on the street was that he had fled to the Atlanta area. However, police said they had recently received word that Parmer was coming back and forth into the Falls from the South.
“We were receiving information that he was back in the area,” Narcotics Division Capt. Morris Shamrock said. “We just missed getting him on several occasions, sometimes by just minutes.”
Thursday night, investigators got a tip that Parmer was at the Elks Club and moved quickly to capture him. Shamrock said patrol officers, under the command of Capt. Dave LeGault, responded to the club and, in a matter of minutes, surrounded it without alerting those inside.
Parmer protested his arrest and denied being a fugitive.
“He claimed he didn’t know anything about this,” Reed said.
During the March round-up, investigators seized 10 guns, mostly shotguns and rifles, more than a pound of crack and powdered cocaine, some cash and a money counting machine. An affidavit filed in federal court by Falls Narcotics Detective Chris Clark indicated that while the investigation was under way, an undercover police officer and at least 10 confidential informants repeatedly purchased crack cocaine and guns from Bloods members, including Parmer, and members of other gangs associated with them.
Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer
at 282-2311, ext. 2252.
