BRAZEN HAWKING OF DRUGS LEADS TO ARREST OF 77 DEALERS SINCE MID-OCTOBER

Tourists Tipped Off Cops To Trade

Police at downtown Station 21 figured something was amiss when tourists
began walking in to ask whether Canada had legalized drugs like marijuana
and hashish.

"It was weird," said Commander Yves Riopel. Street-level dealers had become
so brazen they were openly hawking their wares like beer vendors at a
sports event.

Station 21's territory runs from Amherst St. in the east to Bleury St. in
the west, and from Sherbrooke St. south to the St. Lawrence River - the
area with the highest crime rate in the Montreal Urban Community.

During the summer, several tourists actually walked into the station on
Ste. Elizabeth St. and asked whether Canada had legalized pot and hashish.

Determined to do something about the problem, the MUC police launched an
aggressive campaign to eradicate the downtown drug dealers.

During surveillance, police saw one dealer calling out "Hash! Pot!" in the
Berri-UQAM métro station.

"He was openly advertising it," Riopel said. "You're talking about a very
open market. You can understand how it would sound peculiar to a tourist, a
merchant or anybody who uses the métro system." Riopel said it appears the
dealers were getting their drugs from a gang called the Syndicate,
affiliated with the Hells Angels.

Seventy-seven drug dealers, including four minors, were arrested in a
police operation that began on Oct. 15. The most recent arrests were made
on Wednesday. Riopel said some of the dealers were making $2,000 a week.
Most of the arrests were made around major intersections like St. Laurent
Blvd. and Ste. Catherine St. and the bus terminal on Berri St.

"We received several complaints about drug dealers from commuters and
tourists, especially during the (summer) festival season," said Det.-Lt.
Dominic Wérotte of Station 21.

"More recently we were receiving complaints from merchants in the area.
They noticed a much more open attitude among the drug dealers that they
found disturbing."

In some cases, in the Latin Quarter, business owners saw dealers selling
drugs inside their stores.