POLICE SWARM HOTELS, PAWNSHOPS IN DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Effort Aims To Break Crime, Drug Cycle

VANCOUVER - Vancouver police raided two Downtown Eastside hotels
Wednesday as part of a unique, three-month undercover operation to
target 20 hotels, pawnshops and convenience stores, with the goal of
closing them permanently.

The idea was to target the underground economy in the area as part of
the city's effort to revitalize the Downtown Eastside, said police
Insp. Ken Frail, who headed the Enhanced Enforcement Project and will
announce results of the operation today.

"We wanted to take the profit out of these bad businesses, the kind
that make the area resistant to new, legitimate businesses," said Frail.

"And we would like to break the cycle down here of steal, sell, buy
drugs, use drugs, repeat the cycle."

The first of the two businesses raided Wednesday was the Marr Hotel on
Powell Street, opposite Oppenheimer Park. The park has become a major
site of drug-dealing and violence since a police crackdown a year ago
cleared out the drug market at Main and Hastings.

"The Marr was significant because it has a tremendous negative effect
on Oppenheimer," Frail said, shortly after the emergency response team
went in early Wednesday afternoon.

Weapons, drugs and $30,000 to $50,000 worth of goods was recovered
from the Marr.

The other target was the American Hotel on Main Street, which was
raided early Wednesday evening.

Insp. Bob Rolls, district commander for Vancouver's northeast sector,
said the American has become a warehouse of stolen property brought in
by SkyTrain -- everything from cheese to clothes.

"There's been a tremendous amount of property moving through the
American," said Rolls.

Police arrested three people at the American and recovered drugs,
illegal cigarettes, and stolen property, including a safe encased in
concrete that someone had been trying to open with a
sledgehammer.

The American's liquor licence was temporarily suspended.

Rolls said about 20 people would be charged in total, but he and Frail
said the main targets are establishments that are supporting crime.

Besides gathering evidence to enable the city to suspend business
licences, the police operation will provide information to 13 federal,
provincial and city agencies on employment standards, liquor policy,
immigration, welfare, safety regulations, the Workers' Compensation
Board and Revenue Canada.

The operation was supported by $1.5 million from the Vancouver
Agreement. The project involved 100 officers, some of whom posed as
drug dealers, people selling stolen property and mentally ill residents.

Frail said the nature of the operation made it nerve-wracking for
those involved.