TRI-AREA VERY EASY HIT FOR DRUG DEALS

A Former Dealer Talks About the Realities of the Local Trade

A former drug dealer (name withheld to protect privacy) sat down with
a Reporter/Examiner journalist to give insight into the drug world in
the local area. And in the tri-municipal area it appears very easy to
make money trading in drugs.

"I came in here and within a month I was going through about 2,000
pills of ecstasy every week.

"That's how much ecstasy is going around this area - the Spruce
Grove, Stony, Parkland and a little bit on the west end (Edmonton) areas.

"In Spruce Grove and Stony it's mostly ecstasy and coke that goes around."

Getting involved in the first place was just as easy, the dealer said.

"There were a lot of friends of mine that used to smoke weed and I
had the connection for weed and everybody would come to me and 'Hey,
where can I get some weed from?'

"It just expanded from there. Everybody found out that I can get weed
and then they asked me if I could get other stuff like ecstasy and I
said 'Well, I'll find out.' Then I started carrying weed and ecstasy
and then coke and then crack - just carrying everything on me and it
just built up to the point where I couldn't supply myself with the
demand that was there."

It was time to find some good help.

"I had people working for me. My boss gave it to me as a front and I
would give 100 (pills) here, 100 here, 100 here and they would come
back to me everyday with my money."

According to our source, there are about 10 dealers that operate in
the area, some just 16 years of age. We were also told that ecstasy
was the drug of choice among local high school students.

"Ecstasy is really young - like 14-or 15-year-olds start off at it."

Cocaine is the drug of choice for those a bit older who enjoy a party.

"If you do a line of cocaine it sobers you up instantly. You are
instantly sober and so you can keep on drinking but as soon as that
wears off you are so drunk. So that's why it goes big in those crowds
. . . because you turn around and you do one line and that's usually
the people that are little bit older, up to the 40's or so. They want
to have a couple of drinks but they don't want to go too crazy.

"That's why they'll do the odd line or whatever, so that they can
still keep up a normal conversation and have a couple of drinks with it."

The industry, which is largely dominated by gangs from larger areas,
is sophisticated in its methods.

"I don't know how it's done but my boss can get me a fake pay stub."

These are then used to make it appear that the money was earned legitimately.

"If I wanted to buy a car, (and) I could still claim my income tax
while I am making everything in cash.

"It looks right."

It also makes it difficult for families to detect anything amiss.

"It's easy to turn around and say to your parents or to any family
member 'Oh, well I've got a rig job, I'm going to be gone for 14 days
and be back in town.' When you come back to town you've got all the
money so it looks like you actually did have a rig job."

Those at the top of the chain - drug bosses - who front the
dial-a-dopers and private dealers, make the decisions and control territory.

"They control an area in what you can and can't get.

"They want to bring in weed first, which I guess I did for them
without even realizing it. And then slowly bring it up to higher and
higher drugs. It costs more money but it makes them more money. And
it's slowly a way to control an area."

For example?

"You got this 15-year-old or you've got a 20-year-old smoking weed
all the time, well, now he can't get it but he can get ecstasy so
he's going to try it then he can get coke all the time but it's
getting harder for him to find weed and ecstasy so he's going to try
that. So now you've got him buying the most expensive product and
really you just control the town by making it harder for people to get stuff.

"It's all definitely connected to gangs and whatever."

However, not all the dealers in the area are involved at the gang
level. Our source was a "private dealer", which means that product
was purchased from those at the top who were paid back once the
product was sold. Drug bosses never "own" these independent dealers
and the responsibility between the two parties is much more limited.
If a gang's dealer was caught, lawyer fees, bail and any similar
responsibilities are up to the bosses. If an independent is caught,
they are on their own.

"I already had the clientele, I already had everything I just didn't
have the supplies that I need. So because these other guys all needed
everything - they needed a cell phone to work, they needed everything
- - he's their boss. He tells them what time to work, what time to be
everywhere. With me I went it and just said 'Ok, well I need more
stuff. Here's for the last one.'"

The industry experts also know their way around the law.

"You only carry on you what you can consider personal. If you do get
caught with it on you, you can claim it as personal and all you have
is a possession charge. That's all you get with it. And a possession
charge is nothing.

"Undercover cop vehicles in Spruce Grove? I could list them off.
Because you see them so many times and then you might have the odd
one that follows you for a block and then all of a sudden he turns
off, but 10 minutes later he's following you again.

"You know the vehicles pretty good, but not the people.

"The cops know a lot more than the gangs out there think they do."

So who are the buyers? They usually are those at the top, or the
bottom end of the financial scale, according to our source.

"They (poor people) use just as much as the people that have millions
but it's the middle class people that really don't. You don't really
see (them) use it at all."

And the industry is not a cash-only one. There is a variety of
currency that is acceptable, including stolen merchandise.

"It's not always cash. There was a deal I did for a 56-inch plasma
TV. My cost of that was $20. One piece of crack, that's what he
wanted and I gave him that for a 56-inch plasma TV. I get into town
here and I sold the TV for 500 bucks.

"I made a killing off of that, guy lost his TV and whoever bought the
TV off of me he has this huge TV that can't be linked back to me on
how he ever got it.

"Flea markets are the best. You can go there and take anything you
don't want and sell it to one of the people there. Whatever it is you
sell it to them and they can't prove it was you that gave it to them.
They can't prove that they didn't steal it themselves, if it was
stolen. And I never know the truth on whether it is or not."

Another surprise is that these dealers are not hiding out but are
unabasedly doing deals in broad daylight and in public places - like
inside major box stores. They also regularly have stashes hidden around.

"Nobody is ever going to look in behind your garbage can. But I'm
going to be driving down your alley every day so it looks like I live
in the neighbourhood and I might stop at night time and go and check
my tire or something and I'm reaching behind your garbage can and
grabbing that (stash) out."

Or, "An empty pack of cigarettes, you throw it on the ground, nobody
is going to look in a pack of cigarettes. But you've got all that
stuff inside that pack of cigarettes laying on the ground on the sidewalk."

And just one package went missing in the years of operation.

"That to me cost me $50, it would have made me $200 but it only cost me $50."

Now, working a legitimate job, the thrills are not the same.

"It's completely different.

"This weekend I sat there and I had nothing to do so I bought a whole
bunch of stuff to do gardening. I've never done that before. I was bored.

"I will sit at home and watch TV for an hour when before in that hour
I would have went to 20 different houses. So it's a little different.

"Before I would go around and I would meet how many different people
every day, go to their house maybe have a drink with them, (talk)
with them for a little bit. When it is done and over with, if I want
to finish at midnight I knew where every party was because I'm
supplying everything for every party. So I pick the party I want to
go to, go there, party of a couple of hours, go home and go to bed.
It's like that every day of the week."