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Almuta Muhammad Shabazz Hawks and Roderick Vernard Shannon were the Sarasota cocaine kingpins, police allege in court documents. "Intercepted phone calls and mul- tiple forms of investigative surveillance have revealed the defendant purchasing kilogram quantities of cocaine from his source of sup- ply …" both Hawks' and Shannon's probable cause affidavits say, with identical language. On Jan. 22, Sarasota Police personnel swooped down to scoop up 10 defendants and nearly 12 kilos of white power that tested positive for cocaine. Other affidavits indicate Hawks' and Shannon's confederates would take the pow- der cocaine and manufacture crack for retail sales on the streets of Sarasota and Manatee counties. They were moving at least 10 kilos a week, police say. Senior city police officers call the bust "his- toric," adding that the amount of drugs seized is the biggest ever within the city limits. While larger quantities have been taken in Sarasota County, those drugs were en route to other locations and usually discovered following traffic stops on the interstate. This batch was the local supply. Lt. Pat Ledwith, com- mander of the Criminal Investigations Bureau of the Sarasota Police Department, said, "We believe all the narcotics seized was for local consumption." A l m u t a M u h a m m a d S h a b a z z H a w k s / Contributed photo Roderick Shannon/Contributed photo THE SARASOTA POLICE DEPARTMENT MAKES A 'HISTORIC' BUST By Stan Zimmerman City Editor Sarasota News Leader February 7, 2014 Page 47