Operation Sunrise: A Look Back At How The Cops And The Feds Tried To Take Back The North Philadelphia "Badlands" From the Drug Gangs

Back in 1999, I visited the “Roundhouse,” the nickname of the Philadelphia Police headquarters, and interviewed then-First Deputy Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson for Counterterrorism magazine.    

I spoke to Johnson, who would go on to become the police commissioner, about Operation Sunrise, the joint Philadelphia Police-DEA operation to rout the drug gangs that dominated the “Badlands” in Noth Philadelphia. 

I later toured the Badlands with a veteran detective. 

You can read the Counterterrorism magazine piece below: