SIGNS OF FRUSTRATION

Work with us to solve crack problem, police say after posters put up in
Dartmouth

A hand-printed sign posted yesterday at the corner of Queen Street and
Alderney Drive might be indicating Dartmouth's drug problem is causing much
frustration.

"Crack cocaine for sale 24 Hrs. 12 Victoria & 68 Queen," read the sign,
tacked three metres above the sidewalk on a telephone pole. "Drive-Thru
Service."

Below that message, in fine print, were the words "for public awareness."

Other similar signs were posted around the area yesterday, said Bea
MacGregor, executive director of the Downtown Dartmouth Development Corp.

In June 1997, Myles Layton Smith strangled his girlfriend, Deanna Clayton,
in their apartment at 12 Victoria Rd.

The next day, he stabbed shopkeeper Albert Nasrallah to death during a
robbery.

Smith, who was recently sentenced to life in prison for the murders, blamed
an addiction to crack cocaine for his actions.

The owner of the four-apartment complex could not be reached for comment
yesterday.

`No crack around here'

"There's no crack cocaine around here," Orlando Johnson said yesterday at
noon as he shelled peanuts on the front stoop of 12 Victoria Rd.

The only vice in the building is alcohol, said Johnson, pointing to another
man on the step swigging sherry out of a bottle.

Akram Kazi, who owns 68 Queen St., said he doesn't know of any drug
activity in the building.

"Maybe somebody doesn't like me," he said of the signs.

Shopkeeper Aijaz Mirza runs a convenience store below the four apartments
at 68 Queen St.

While he doesn't know if anyone is dealing crack from the building, Mirza
said customers have stopped coming to the store because they don't feel safe.

"I'm just planning to close it to go somewhere else," he said.

Local families might have posted the signs "just to bring the attention of
the authorities," said Mirza.

"They are concerned about their children," he said.

Police working area

Drug-squad officers are working in the area, said Const. Gary Martin, who
refused to indicate if the two addresses have been connected to the cocaine
trade.

Police took the signs down and will try to figure out who posted them,
Martin said.

"We would want them to come forward to us and work with us if they have
information on drug dealing," he said.

"Eighty per cent of our criminal charges are generated through public
assistance."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski