Drug dealers watched ‘Wire’

David Simon’s HBO series “The Wire” -- a fictional account of a police investigation of Baltimore drug dealers -- allegedly had some real-life dealers taking notes.

While announcing a crackdown of a cocaine ring, Baltimore police said their investigation was hampered by the suspects’ habit of switching cellphones -- a technique for evading electronic eavesdropping they picked up from TV.

“Believe it or not, these guys copied ‘The Wire,’ ” one of the investigators, Sgt. Felipe Rodriguez, said at a news conference. “They were constantly dumping their phones. It made our job so much harder.”

Police relied largely on wiretaps to infiltrate the gang, which made up to $15 million a year. The result: 12 arrests and seizure of 43 kilograms of cocaine, 18 handguns, $500,000 cash and five luxury vehicles.