West Baltimore drug trade

E272357

The West Baltimore drug trade is the violent, economically driven narcotics underworld depicted in The Wire, characterized by rival crews, street-level dealing, and deep entanglement with the community and institutions.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
West Baltimore drug trade canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (65)

Predicate Object
instanceOf fictional criminal enterprise
narcotics distribution network
organized crime depiction
appearsIn The Wire
basedOn real-life Baltimore drug trade
characterizedBy corruption of public institutions
hierarchical crew structure
open-air drug markets
territorial disputes
use of lookouts and runners
use of pagers and cell phones
use of pay phones
violent enforcement
witness intimidation
createdBy David Simon
depictedInSeason Season 1 of The Wire
The Wire
surface form: Season 2 of The Wire

The Wire
surface form: Season 3 of The Wire

The Wire
surface form: Season 4 of The Wire

The Wire
surface form: Season 5 of The Wire
developedWithInputFrom Ed Burns
distributionModel cooperative wholesale purchasing (New Day Co-Op)
corner-based retail system
high-rise tower dealing
entangledWith Baltimore Police Department
surface form: Baltimore Police Department (fictional depiction)

Baltimore docks and stevedores (fictional depiction)
Baltimore political institutions (fictional depiction)
Baltimore City Public Schools
surface form: Baltimore public schools (fictional depiction)

local economy of West Baltimore (fictional depiction)
hasEnforcerCharacter Chris Partlow
Snoop Pearson
Wee-Bey Brice
hasLeaderCharacter Avon Barksdale
Marlo Stanfield
Stringer Bell
hasNotableCrew Barksdale Organization
Hamsterdam dealers
New Day Co-Op
Stanfield Organization
hasParticipantCharacter Bodie Broadus
D'Angelo Barksdale
Dukie Weems
Michael Lee
Namond Brice
Poot Carr
hasRivalCharacter Brother Mouzone
Omar Little
lawEnforcementResponse Hamsterdam legalization experiment
Major Crimes Unit investigations
buy-and-bust operations
wiretaps
locatedInFictionalUniverse Baltimore, Maryland, United States
surface form: Baltimore, Maryland
narrativeFunction to critique the war on drugs
to explore systemic urban poverty
to show institutional dysfunction
partOf The Wire
portrayedAs deeply embedded in community life
economically driven
intergenerational
resistant to simple law-enforcement solutions
primaryActivity street-level drug dealing
wholesale narcotics distribution
primaryProduct cocaine
heroin
setIn West Baltimore

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Stringer Bell setting West Baltimore drug trade