CRACK DEALER SELLS TO BEST KNOWN COP

Competition among Vancouver's drug dealers is so intense they'll sell to
anyone -- even the city's most recognizable police officer.

In an effort to prove just how aggressive drug traffickers have become,
Constable Anne Drennan went undercover Wednesday to buy crack on the
Downtown Eastside.

Drennan, media relations officer for Vancouver city police, bought a $10
rock of crack cocaine at Main and Hastings, despite being repeatedly
recognized by people who see her almost daily on television.

``People all around me are going, `Hey, hey Anne Drennan,' and he still
sold to me,'' she said.

Drennan, who was accompanied by another undercover police officer,
estimates they were on the street in front of the Carnegie Centre for less
than five minutes before the deal was done and the trafficker arrested.

``Our point is that there are so many dealers out there, and the level of
dealing is so intense right now, that these people will approach anyone,''
Drennan said. ``They're becoming bolder, more brazen, more blatant in terms
of their approaches. Anybody can buy.''

Drennan did the buy and bust exactly a week after police began rounding up
more than 70 suspected street-level drug dealers in one of the largest mass
arrests in the city's history.

Police arrested 18 more people earlier this week, including three for
breaching the bail conditions imposed after the first arrests last week.

One alleged dealer has been arrested three times for breaching the
conditions of his release, which prohibits him from being in the area of
Main and Hastings.

``So we're seeing the return now of the people who were charged in the
round-up,'' Drennan said.

Her own drug bust Wednesday was delayed twice, once when a fight broke out
in front of the Carnegie Centre between a man with a crowbar and a man with
a machete. Police were called to deal with the fight and arrest the
suspects before the undercover operation could begin.

``Within minutes of the fight being wrapped and the officers leaving the
area, the dealers were back and working,'' she said.

Again, Drennan and her partner went out, but this time a man overdosed at
the same location. Again, police cruisers and ambulances were called to the
scene.

``I felt this was really heating the area up and there was just no way,''
Drennan said. ``But then, I witnessed drug deals going down while the
police and ambulance were trying to cope with the overdose situation --
deals going down just feet away.

``As soon as the ambulance and police left the scene, that's when we moved
in and made a deal almost immediately.''

Drennan said police will continue with the buy and busts in coming days to
put pressure on the drug dealers, and reassure the community that officers
are doing everything they can with available resources.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski