CITY COPS SWOOP DOWN IN EAST-SIDE DEALER ROUNDUP

Colin Price, The Province / Suspected cocaine dealer in custody: Police were
armed with warrants to arrest 81 people, including 40 non-Canadian residents.

As Vancouver's finest arrested a clutch of drug dealers on his doorstep
yesterday, cobbler Laszlo Goblyos had a solution for the crime-ridden area.
"We need another gulag, like they had in Russia," said Goblyos who has seen
his 15- year-old Abbott Street business all but disappear. "I had a good
business," lamented Goblyos. "But over the last three years since the drug
dealers came I have no business. My old customers are too scared to come."

Vancouver police swept through the downtown east side and parts of
Commercial Drive yesterday with warrants to arrest 81 suspected cocaine
dealers on 108 trafficking charges.

Police ran "Operation Libra" from Sept. 20 to Oct. 6 in which officers in
plain clothes bought drugs from street-level dealers. Yesterday police went
out to round them up.

Thirty-four of the accused had prior charges, and 27 already faced
drug-related charges but were out on bail. About 40 were non-Canadian
residents, said Insp. Chris Beach.

There were 72 male suspects, and nine female. Four were young offenders.

Beach said only 29 actually live in the downtown east side.

Which did not come as news to Barb Wright.

"There was a serious drug problem here," said Wright, coordinator for the
Cedar Cottage Community Policing Centre.

"They come in on the SkyTrain. They aren't selling to our community, they're
bringing in business from outside the area."

Wright said drug dealers moved in about eight months ago and now operate in
the working class neighbourhood from 1st to 12th along Commercial and in
front of the Broadway SkyTrain station.

And she said residents worry that the dealers are becoming an attractive
lure to young women and children.

"They make no bones about being big shots," she said. "They've got
10-year-olds riding bicycles running errands for them."

Wright said the community has held a series of meetings with police, city
hall officials, provincial politicians and SkyTrain representatives.

"We don't want to just push it out of here and into another neighbourhood,
but at the same time, we are prepared to clean up our own streets," she said.

This is the third major drug roundup since last October when 70 people were
charged. Another sweep of 66 suspects was conducted in January of this year.
Many suspects were Honduran refugee claimants.