CRACK SQUAD ON TRACK

Two traffickers with 1,300 hits are arrested as police agree to set up
a strike force to fight SkyTrain's scourge

An impeccably timed crack cocaine seizure yesterday highlighted a
decision by four Lower Mainland police forces to hit hard against drug
dealers who have terrorized neighbourhoods up and down the SkyTrain
line.

Surrey and Burnaby RCMP and New Westminster and Vancouver police
forces agreed yesterday to form a special strike force in conjunction
with Canada Immigration, the federal justice department and the
provincial attorney-general.

Even as they made the announcement, a tip led Burnaby RCMP to a pair
of dealers who couldn't have provided police with better evidence of
the problem at hand.

At Kingsway and Edmonds, in the back of a car, officers found a man
and a woman --Eboth Honduran refugee claimants -- dividing a
quarter-pound of crack into tiny sealed packages. That's about 1,300
hits of the addictive drug.

The man was arrested in Vancouver only months ago on an identical
charge.

"I don't doubt that the drugs were destined for sale at a SkyTrain
station in the Lower Mainland," said Burnaby RCMP Sgt. Derek Cooke.
"You can draw your own conclusions."

Cooke said more than 30 people from stakeholder agencies gathered at
the meeting, called to tackle a problem that has moved from
neighbourhood to neighbourhood, winding up recently around Metrotown
SkyTrain station.

Police there have arrested more than 37 crack dealers in the past week
- -- the majority refugee claimants, several with previous arrests for
the same crime.

Among other factors, critics blame lax immigration laws, soft court
sentences and a criminal syndicate which appears to be working the
system bringing Honduran teenagers to Canada to sell drugs while
making bogus refugee claims.

Cooke said the point of the meeting was to solve the problem rather
than displace it. Using existing resources and expanded information
sharing, he said the proposed strike force should be up and running by
the new year.

"It'll be more than simply a uniform presence. They'll be
plain-clothes officers as well as a focus on organized crime links,"
said Cooke. "Everyone recognizes that this is a significant problem
affecting our communities. It was a positive meeting --Eeverybody
wants the same outcome."

Cooke said a recent report released by the attorney-general's office
calling for armed SkyTrain cops was not a part of the meeting's agenda.

The union representing TransLink Security constables supports the
proposal, but Cooke said the suggestion speaks more to a long-term
crime problem faced specifically by SkyTrain.