CAPITAL'S NEW STREET CRIME UNIT CLEANING UP STREETS

CHARLOTTETOWN - Only weeks on the job, the capital police's new
street crime unit has already stopped thousands of dollars in drugs
from reaching Island streets.

In two busts, the most recent Thursday morning, the unit seized crack
cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy, prescription narcotics and other drugs.

Two adult males, two female youth and a male youth were arrested in
Thursday's bust and jailed overnight. Each faces charges of
possession of drugs for purpose of trafficking and possession of
stolen property.

"This is just another avenue and another tool in fighting crime,"
Const. Gary Clow said of the three-person unit. "Already they are
doing great work."

The department's K9 unit and RCMP's joint forces drug unit assisted
in Thursday's raid. A stockpile of stolen goods, including computers,
laptops and other electronics, were also seized.

Police have identified some of the goods as those taken in recent
residential and business breaks in the city.

The value of the drugs seized Thursday is yet to be tallied but
considered "substantial" by police.

The raid on Spring Park Road was just feet from St. Jean Elementary
School, a fact Clow called disturbing.

He didn't know if drugs were being sold at the school.

But the new unit will be doing more than drug busts.

The three plainclothes department veterans should ease the burden on
officers often pulled from duties to work on street-level crime
investigations, from thefts from vehicles to break and enters.

And, with crime on the rise, Clow expects the unit will be busy.

"Whatever is happening on the street, that's where they'll be."