POLICE, RESIDENTS TAKE AIM AT DRUG MOBILES

As if some Prince George neighbourhoods weren't having enough
problems with crackshacks, now there are crackmobiles, too.

One area in particular, in the vicinity of First Avenue and Tabor
Boulevard, is pushing back against the drug vendors who have been
peddling dope from vehicles that come, stay awhile, then go, only to
return later perhaps in a different vehicle.

"We're dealing with mobile crack forts set up in the parking lot,"
said Rhonda Paul-Mattice of the Block Watch group in the area. "They
wheel in, the clients come to the vehicle. And there is an
astronomical amount of prostitution and drug activity right in plain
open view. We have organized sex-trade activity going on right in the
parking lot. We have about eight (sex-trade workers) we recognize
working out of this area now, and it all sort of centres around these
drug dealers."

The local police are well aware of the situation, which has been
slowly creeping in for some time from other areas. Some call it
"celling" drugs since the dealers' primary tool is a cellular phone.

"In most cities it is called dial-a-doping," said Prince George RCMP
Sgt. Raj Sidhu, commander of the city's drug unit. "The customers will
phone certain numbers and the person selling the drugs will come to
them or direct them where to go. It has been increasing in P.G. over
the last year due to pressure on the crackshacks from police
enforcement."

Records show Prince George Mounties have launched more than 80 search
warrants in the past year on local homes and buildings believed to be
involved in the drug trade. That sustained police action forced the
dealers to change their tactics.

"People are selling drugs on bikes, from cars, even on foot," Sidhu
said. "It is all over the city. It depends on where the customers call
from and where they feel comfortable delivering the drugs to. It is
always the case that they are low-level mules or street dealers. It is
always small quantities. They usually have dealings with the people
who have what we'll call safe houses where they keep larger
quantities, you could call it a distribution point where the one who
controls the house might have a number of people making deliveries or
maybe just one person."

Mobile drug dealing has other benefits for the dealers as well.
Detection is harder, the losses are smaller if caught by police, and
they also avoid territorial competitors and disgruntled customers. The
cost of operating a crackshack is also considerably higher than having
a quiet distribution point and a team of travelling
salespeople.

Not in my neighbourhood, said Paul-Mattice who has a team of angry
residents with her in the fight to rid of these dealers. They
constantly call the police to report incidents and describe the people
involved, and when they cross certain lines in the residential area
they get an earful from the families who live there.

"Whatever confrontations we have to have to get this element out of
our neighbourhood, we are going to do it," Paul-Mattice said.

Mounties said in spite of the challenges involved in investigating
mobile drug dealers, there are techniques that work and "we do still
catch them. We have caught many of these guys," said Sidhu.

The danger level has been going up, though as more and more of these
dealers get their hands on guns or carry other weapons with them.

"It is more dangerous, there is no doubt about it," Sidhu said.