Forced Out: Inside the Tactics Used to Seize Neighborhood Homes

Drug groups use a mix of overt violence, harassment, and gradual coercion to push residents out and control territory. Tactics include intimidation (threats, guns, beatings), daily harassment (badgering, stealing, property damage, porch theft), social manipulation (dating or befriending relatives, creating family conflict), economic pressure (car theft, vandalism, theft of groceries), and escalation (arson, sustained assaults) to make living in a target home untenable. Some individuals appear as a friend.