Homicide fight centers on drug trade With a rise in dealer-related killings, special unit goes after those with gun records

Homicide fight centers on drug trade
With a rise in dealer-related killings, special unit goes after those with gun records

Sergeant Detective Al Terestre reviewed photos of the man his team was seeking before the unit headed out. (Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)
By Maria Cramer
Globe Staff / January 12, 2011

Sergeant Detective Al Terestre stood before four police officers inside the Dorchester district station on a recent December morning and explained the day’s mission.

Their target was Victor Kipping — 6-foot-5, 300 pounds, with a gun record — who, according to one of Terestre’s informants, was dealing marijuana out of his home.

“He’s no slouch,’’ Terestre warned the drug unit officers crowded in the squad’s cramped office. “He’s a big guy. He’s got a violent past.’’

Boston police are putting men with gun records and histories of violence in their sights, hoping it will tamp down the spree of shootings and stabbings that last year led to 72 homicides, a nearly 50 percent increase from 2009.

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