POLICE SEIZE 'CRACK KITS' AT STORES

Five Miami convenience stores were searched Friday and four people were
arrested after an undercover officer who posed as an addict bought "crack
kits." A store owner and three employees from stores in Little Havana and
Coconut Grove were charged with delivery of drug paraphernalia, a felony
with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Another
suspect had not been arrested Friday night.

Crack kits consist of a cigarette-size hollow glass tube, a piece of wire
mesh used as a filter and a lighter. Crack cocaine is placed in the tube
and smoked through the mesh.

Kits are bought from behind the counter and can cost between $3 and $4, a
markup of six to eight times, police said.

Vendors sell the glass tubes with small paper roses in them, and store
owners claim the tubes were intended to be used as gifts. Since it's not a
crime to possess or sell the items without knowledge that they will be used
for drugs, police set up an undercover sting called Operation Broken Glass
to prove intent.

Posing as a drug addict and wearing a backpack with a hidden camera,
23-year-old patrol officer Maritza Alfonso purchased dozens of kits over
the course of several nights by asking the vendors for "crack pipes." On
several occasions, Alfonso even let imitation crack fall from her pocket,
leading one store clerk to warn her to keep it hidden because undercover
officers often frequent the store.

Vendors could stand to lose their alcohol and cigarette licenses, and even
their business license, police said.

The arrests are the latest success in a community policing initiative
started by Miami Police last year to clean up some of the city's most
drug-infested and crime-ridden neighborhoods.

In Little Havana alone, the team's five officers have made 550 arrests
since November, though many of those are multiple arrests of the same
person, said Sgt. Jose Alfonso, leader of the Little Havana team.

Despite the increased police presence, one Little Havana convenience store
owner arrested Friday did not appear concerned about the police when he
spoke to a reporter in January.

"If I don't sell these kits, someone else will," said Qaiser Pervez, 48,
owner of the Kwik Stop Food Store on 241 NW Eighth Ave. "The police will be
here two or three months and then they'll disappear."

In addition to two counts of selling drug paraphernalia, Pervez was charged
Friday with possession of illegal fireworks after police found a dozen
boxes of fireworks and was charged with petty theft for having a box of
condoms labeled Dade County Health Department.