INCREASED POLICE EFFORT LEADS TO DRUG ARRESTS

Burlington police said Wednesday that the 28 drug arrests they made
in the past five weeks are the result of doubling the size of their
drug unit and focusing patrols in residential neighborhoods.

The arrests suggest that Burlington's greatest drug problem is
shifting away from heroin to crack and cocaine. Marijuana and
prescription medication, including OxyContin, continue to account for
a portion of the arrests.

The 28 people charged vary in age, gender and neighborhood, including
a 61-year-old woman and her 17-year-old granddaughter. The charges
range from possession of drug paraphernalia to sale of narcotics and cocaine.

Burlington police added two officers to the force's drug unit this
spring, doubling what was a two-person unit. They shifted their focus
from public parks and the Church Street Marketplace to residential
neighborhoods, Burlington Deputy Police Chief Michael Schirling said.

The result of their efforts was on display Wednesday in the station:
plastic bags filled with crack, high-quality cocaine, psychedelic
mushrooms, marijuana, prescription medication and stacks of
high-denomination bills.

Noticeably absent was the presence of heroin, which for the past
several years has plagued Burlington and Vermont.

Schirling said the drug trend has shifted, and the heroin-crack cycle
is not uncommon. "The number of heroin overdoses is way down,"
Schirling said, as is the number of heroin arrests.

Last week, the owners of a local taxicab company publicly blamed a
drug problem as the reason behind an attack on a cab driver.
Schirling said that week the department was making several drug
arrests and ran numbers to see if their suspicions -- that they had
been making progress with drug arrests -- were accurate.

Police found they arrested 28 individuals in a five-week period, and
some cases are so serious that they might be prosecuted at a federal
level. Schirling, contacted at home Wednesday evening, said he didn't
have comparable numbers from last year. He said the department felt
the number of recent arrests was noteworthy enough to call a news conference.

Police are continuing to investigate neighborhood drug activity. They
ask that anyone spotting suspicious activity call the station at
658-2700 and ask for a member of the drug unit.