The planned shooting had gone awry. The “mission” was foiled when the intended target, who was in the shower, had been alerted by his dog.
![Police allege that these two houses on the 2500 block of Jackson Street on the Westside were part of a major drug trafficking organization.(Photo: Tim Evans / The Star)](https://gopopai.org/admincontentmanagement/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/house-150x150.jpg)
Police allege that these two houses on the 2500 block of Jackson Street on the Westside were part of a major drug trafficking organization.(Photo: Tim Evans / The Star)
David McMichel, the alleged leader of a violent Indianapolis drug ring, lamented the missed opportunity in a phone call with an associate — captured, according to court documents, on a law enforcement wiretap.
“Dogs and cats really be saving people these days,” McMichel says. “Should’ve bum rushed him and finished him.”
“Botched a mission,” replies the associate, James Caldwell. “That makes it 10 times harder the next time.”
McMichel and Caldwell were among 13 people charged last week for their role in a drug trafficking organization that distributed large quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in Indianapolis and elsewhere in Indiana, according to federal authorities. During the course of the nine-month investigation, several pounds of heroin and methamphetamine, as well $16,000 in cash, 19 firearms and two bullet-proof vests, were confiscated.
The 103-page probable cause affidavit — based on months of police wiretaps, GPS monitoring of vehicles and images captured by cameras on utility poles — offers a unique insight into how the drug dealers operated, including their foibles.
At times, the document reads like a script for a Quentin Tarantino movie or an episode of “The Wire.”