MAJOR CRACKDOWN ON CRACK ALSO TARGETS RELATED CRIMES

A mid-afternoon Corktown takedown yesterday illustrates why Hamilton
police are devoting significant resources to Chief Ken Robertson's
promised crackdown on crack.

In all, 28 officers from all three divisions have been handed the task
of shutting down an estimated 20 crack houses in the city's core.

Senior officers have admitted the attack on crack is not motivated by
a detailed analysis of a supposed rise in crack-related crimes.
Rather, experience has taught police that the use and sale of the
addictive cocaine derivative known as crack inevitably attracts a host
of other criminal activities, notably violence and
prostitution.

Such was the case yesterday, when police arrested a 19-year-old man at
a Wellington Street South apartment and charged him with using
violence and drugs to force two young women into prostitution.

It was an arrest that probably would have attracted little attention
were it not for two high-profile police campaigns.

The Corktown bust involves crack and prostitution and comes as police
wrap up a sweep of the city's escort agencies and begin to pull
together their plans for implementing Robertson's attack on crack. But
the investigation that led to yesterday's arrest was part of neither
project.

Instead, it began with a scared, crack-addicted 16-year-old girl who
escaped from her pimp and complained to police. A man had threatened
and assaulted her and forced her into prostitution, the teen told police.

Another young woman, 20, and addicted to crack, fled the same man and
also complained to police.

Between November and January, police say he forced the two young women
to sell their sexual services more than 200 times. Average price --
$25 to $50.

The suspect used the women's need for crack as well as threats and
assault to keep them under his control.

He sent them out each night with an order to ``bring back the money or
bring back crack,'' said Inspector Dave Bowen.

The man himself is a crack user, completing the ugly
circle.

Yesterday, that circle was broken as Detectives Brian Grigsby and Stew
Jones from the vice and drugs squad, and officers from Central HEAT
(High Action Enforcement Team) descended on a Wellington Street South
apartment building around 2:30 p.m. They emerged minutes later with a
compliant, bearded suspect. While a handful of curious tenants watched
from the lobby and the sidewalk, the man was handcuffed and put into
the back of a cruiser before being whisked to police headquarters for
booking.

He faces three prostitution-related charges as well as charges of
assault and threatening death and bodily harm.

``It illustrates the connection between crack and prostitution,''
Bowen said yesterday.

The arrested man is not a crack cocaine dealer, Bowen said, but a
user.

``But I note he didn't put himself on the street -- he forced others
to prostitute themselves for him.''

And while neighbours and the building's superintendent are only to
happy to see alleged crack users getting the hook, they expressed some
surprise at yesterday's target.

``He was a nice man -- he didn't cause any trouble that I know
about,'' said building superintendent Joan Balog after the arrest.

Balog said the man first showed up in her building about a month ago,
seeming to move in with a tenant she'd known for two years.
``Actually, I haven't seen him (the original tenant) very much since
then -- he always used to drop in and chat.''

Still, as superintendent of one of three buildings in a modest
downtown apartment complex, Balog has had her brushes with the ravages
of crack.

A home next door served as a crack house for many months, bringing a
constant parade of noise and trouble into the neighbourhood.

Closer to home, crack dealers moved in on a mentally troubled tenant
last year.

``They `befriended' him and then they just moved in on him, just took
control of him,'' Balog said, shaking her head at the memory.

Balog said the dealers took the man's money, bank card and keys. The
customers were loud and disruptive and sometimes violent -- there were
fights and finally a stabbing that nearly killed a Mississauga man
last summer.

That got Balog the attention she'd been seeking from the police and,
with their help, the unit was cleared out. The dealers were arrested
or scared off, word got out to the customers and they too were scared
off. The unfortunate tenant was evicted.

The building is now operating under new management, and Balog is not
anxious to repeat the experience, and so welcomed the police action.

``It may just have been a matter of time. He may have caused trouble
some time from now,'' she said, worrying that the next step may have
been turning the apartment into a crack house.