HONDURAN KIDS SELL DRUGS HERE

Children and teenagers from Honduras are being forced to sell crack cocaine
on Lower Mainland streets by drug rings, police and community outreach
workers say.

But because these kids are suspicious of authority figures, it's difficult
to determine exactly how many have been lured into Canada with promises of
a better life, where they are living, or who is controlling them.

Estimates of the numbers of Honduran kids selling drugs range anywhere from
50 to 200.

Vancouver police Staff Sergeant Doug MacKay-Dunn said officers have
collected enough evidence to suggest sophisticated ringleaders are
smuggling children into Canada, finding loopholes for them to apply for
welfare and refugee claims, and giving them jobs selling drugs on the
streets.

"This is essentially an issue of slavery," said MacKay-Dunn, a member of a
task force formed two weeks ago with officers from Burnaby and New
Westminster to investigate the case.

"They are tied to these predators and they won't let them go."

MacKay-Dunn would not comment on the police investigation, except to say he
does not think any ringleaders have been arrested yet.

He estimated 100 Honduran victims, mainly boys between 11 and 16 years old,
have been lured to B.C. from their impoverished Central American homes.

He said they live on the streets and won't trust police or outreach workers.

Officers first saw young Hispanic children selling drugs on local streets
two years ago, but say there has been a marked increase in such activity in
the last six months.

MacKay-Dunn said police want to get these children off the street, not
arrest them.

They also want to break up the suspected drug ring, which could put a large
dent in Vancouver's crack supply.

Immigration Canada is working with police "to get a handle on the
situation," but acting Vancouver manager Murray Wilkinson said it's
premature to estimate there are as many as 100 victims because no charges
have been laid and no evidence has been presented in court.

Wilkinson said children can't apply for refugee status without an adult
guardian, so if the victims are underage and have refugee papers then
"someone must be deceiving someone."

Anyone applying for refugee status is issued temporary papers while waiting
for a refugee hearing, and is not detained unless considered dangerous.

Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society executive director John Turvey
estimated there are between 50 and 100 Honduran children selling drugs in
Vancouver.

DEYAS outreach workers say they have helped one of the children and had
contact with about five more, but Turvey wouldn't elaborate because of
privacy issues.

He said it's difficult to find the children or communicate with them
because most speak little English and are under the control of drug
dealers.

Some children told DEYAS workers they were promised in Honduras that they
would get welfare and earn $200 a day selling drugs in Canada, and have
already sent money home to their poor families.

The children also told DEYAS workers they arrived in B.C. with a phone
number to contact a person who would provide the drugs, Turvey said. He
believes the dealers were based in Burnaby, but may have now moved to New
Westminster.

"I'm sure it's a better world up here for a lot of them than down there. .
. . If we can just get these young folks to understand that they have
nothing to fear from the state," Turvey said.

He believes police, social services, Immigration Canada and community
groups need more resources, such as Spanish-speaking outreach workers, to
rescue these kids.

About 100 officers from Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam and New Westminster
met last Thursday with police from Portland, Ore., to hear how several U.S.
cities used a street enforcement program to handle the young Honduran drug
dealers.

Burnaby RCMP Staff Sergeant Elton Deans said his officers have identified
about 200 people from Honduras who are suspected to be involved in the drug
trade.

They were recently ejected from a Burnaby apartment complex, but police are
still trying to determine how old they are, how they got into Canada, and
if they are trafficking.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)