DRUGS SOLD 'BRAZENLY' OVER COUNTER

Proprietors Of St. Clair W. Shop Arrested

From behind the wooden counter of a modest St. Clair Avenue West
smoke shop, two men dealt marijuana and cocaine to a flood of
customers for at least a year as if it were legal, police said.

As many as 80 deals were conducted each day from the counter, which
is clearly visible to the street, investigators said.

"The accused were so brazen that they would sell the narcotics at the
store counter," Toronto police said in a release. "The customers
would simply walk up to the counter and purchase the narcotics as if
purchasing a pack of cigarettes."

This week, the pair were arrested on 10 charges each for running an
alleged drug business known as The Blunt Shop.

"It was common knowledge," said one business owner who, like other
local merchants, didn't want his name made public.

"You could tell by all the traffic going in and out of there ... How
stupid are they to put a store in there, sell drugs and think they're
going to get away with it? They really got brazen there."

Yesterday, the once-busy store near Runnymede Road was dark, with a
pop refrigerator in one corner, a gum rack and shelves with rolling
papers and legal cigarettes.

A two-foot statute of a golfer stood near the front window and a
sticker on the door warned that selling cigarettes to people under 19
is prohibited.

School kids were the "minority" among customers, but surveillance
teams spotted students regularly dropping by the shop after class.

Constable Doodnath Churkoo, who conducted surveillance on the
address, said the business was selling mainly pot to people trusted
by the owners and cocaine in "larger quantities" to street dealers.

Two kilograms of cocaine and a "large quantity" of marijuana were
seized this week, along with money, weight scales and debt lists, police say.

"[One accused] was telling his friends it was called the Blunt Shop,"
said Const. Churkoo. "News spreads fast in the drug culture.

"Most people were introduced to the owners and, once there's a trust
relationship, there's no questions asked. But a new guy may even get
turned away if [the accused] didn't trust them. Almost all of his
customers were repeat customers."

Police say they haven't counted all the money seized from the pair's
shop, but Const. Churkoo estimates it was raking in a few hundred
thousand dollars a year.

"Whatever you and I make in a month, they can make [in] two or three
days," he said.

Openly selling illegal drugs from a shop counter may seem peculiar,
but the officer said almost every neighbourhood in the city could
have a similar business -- albeit more subtle.

"We need people to make a complaint," he added. "Otherwise we may not
hear about it."

Some merchants, including the baker, used car dealer and restaurateur
whose shops bookend the two-storey building, don't recall a thriving
drug business that was allegedly happening right under their noses.

"I never noticed anything," said one. "I just keep my head on my business."

He said people are nervous about talking because crime is rife in the
area, and they fear retribution -- a stone through their window, or
worse. "They know -- everybody knows [about the shop]," he said.
"They just want to mind their own business."

Said another shop owner: "We don't mix. And I don't smoke."

Another business owner across the street said break-ins are common.
One woman's shop was pierced with a bullet a year ago, and people
openly smoke marijuana -- like the man who smoked a joint yesterday
inside his van parked in the mini strip mall.

"You don't know who's watching -- don't you dare mention my name,"
the shop owner said. "People are scared. I would never have opened a
store here, if I had known how bad this area is."

Mississauga residents [Name redacted], 37, and [Name redacted], 34,
face numerous charges.