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David Simon and George Pelecanos are returning to HBO and Baltimore with a limited series based on the true story of the infamous Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force, Variety has learned from sources.

Simon and Pelecanos will write and executive produce the drama, which is titled "We Own This City." It is based on the book of the same name by journalist Justin Fenton.

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An elite Baltimore police task force spent years plundering the city and its residents for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, drugs, and jewelry.

That's the astonishing revelation from the case against the Baltimore Police Department's now-defunct Gun Trace Task Force. Eight people in the nine-member task force have been charged with crimes that amount to massive abuses of power and repeated violations of locals' constitutional rights. Six have pleaded guilty, and two were convicted of several federal charges on Monday.

The task force, as its name suggests, was originally meant to get guns and violent criminals off the streets. In an investigation spanning over the past few years, however, federal officials uncovered a team fueled by corruption: The police officers in the unit set people up for baseless searches. They robbed people. They carried toy guns to plant as fake evidence in case they killed an unarmed person. They clocked overtime when they weren't working at all.

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