COPS SCOOP DEALERS IN CRACKDOWN ON STREET CRACK

Police swept through Vancouver's downtown east side yesterday scooping up
crack-cocaine dealers.

Sixty-six warrants were issued for 80 drug-related charges in Operation
Crackdown.

The arrests continued through the night as wave after wave of drug dealers
turned up at the Carnegie Centre.

Of the 66 people targeted, 46 were Honduran refugee claimants, and one was
from El Salvador, said Insp. Gary Greer.

"The significant issue here is out of the 66 people charged, 46 are foreign
criminals who are here as refugee claimants. But in our opinion, in reality,
they are here to traffic in drugs and to ultimately destroy our community."

Of the 66, nine were women and three were juveniles.

More than 40 Vancouver cops took part, along with 10 RCMP, Canada
Immigration officers and members of the U.S. Border Patrol.

"Many of these people cross the border, so they are of interest to the U.S.
Border Patrol," said Greer.

"We believe that many of these people are well organized. They are supplied
with their drugs. They are given their territory to work and are even given
a shift to work.

"Our belief is that these people come here already recruited to take part in
the selling of drugs."

The raids, conducted simultaneously at a number of locations, came after a
16-day undercover buy operation.

At the Carnegie Centre at Hastings and Main, more than 25 people were lined
up against a retaining wall as police questioned and searched them. Glass
crack pipes were broken underfoot; syringes were handled gingerly.

"This is great, if it helps stop this drug-dealing," said grey-haired Joanne
Hamen, 58, who has been going to the centre for 10 years. "They even ask me
to buy -- I don't even hear it any more."

Carnegie volunteer Jeff Kionke, 30, echoed her thoughts.

Police "should be down here at least twice a day," said Kionke. "I can't get
off the bus without [dealers] approaching me."

Greer said police will ask the courts to keep the suspects locked up, but
will settle for area restrictions in Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster.

Sgt. Mark Horsley, who headed the raids, said: "I'm trying to disrupt the
pattern of trafficking they have become comfortable with. I'm trying to
reverse the idea that this is OK."

Canada Immigration said refugee claimants who are convicted of trafficking
are not automatically thrown out of Canada.

"Serving a sentence for being a drug trafficker in itself does not result in
exclusion from the refugee process," said Murray Wilkinson of Canada
Immigration.

"However, a person who is convicted of drug-trafficking might well be found
to be a danger to the public and could end up being excluded in this
manner."

Wilkinson said the average refugee claim takes at least six months and could
take closer to a year -- and years longer if all the appeals are followed.