DOZENS FACE ARREST IN SKID-ROW DRUG SWEEP

As the International Drug Education and Awareness Symposium got rolling
yesterday, a massive street-level drug bust was taking place in the area of
Abbott and Hastings.

From April 16 to April 26, using the code name Project Caveat, a network
of undercover police officers made various purchases of crack cocaine.

Yesterday, they moved on the Downtown Eastside, intending to arrest 58
people on 74 charges of trafficking.

"As of 10:30 this morning, we had served 16 warrants," said Insp. Kash
Heed, the Vancouver police officer in charge of the project. "We have nine
people in custody."

Heed said police have been consistent in moving on the open-air drug trade
at locations such as the corner of Main and Hastings, laying 540 charges of
drug trafficking in the past 10 months in the Downtown Eastside.

"Twenty-two of the fifty-eight people are in the refugee stream," Heed
said. "Their nationalities have not been identified."

While the conference tries to find answers to the problem of the
international drug trade, Heed was concentrating on curbing the local problem.

"We're trying to reduce the supply, and reduce the demand," he said, noting
that of those facing charges, six were female and one was a minor.

He said 48 per cent of the suspects live in the Downtown Eastside, another
32 per cent live in Vancouver, and 20 per cent live outside Vancouver.