51 BUSTED IN STREET-LEVEL DIAL-A-DOPER SWEEP

Six Vehicles Seized in Three-Week Project May Be Sold

Edmonton police took a swipe at the city's street-level drug dealers
in March, arresting 51 people in a three-week crackdown.

The 45 men and six women arrested aren't big players in the drug
scene, but Staff Sgt. Greg Preston of the gang and drug section said
it's just as important to target the bottom of the drug hierarchy.

"At some point, we do go for the low-hanging fruit because you can't
ignore it. These are the people in your community; they're the ones
selling drugs in front of your house and in front of our shopping
centres," Preston said.

"We aren't ignoring the higher people, but we also want to make sure
we don't ignore the lower end. It's easy to ignore the lower end and
work for the top, but they're all involved in the same process."

Arresting low-level drug dealers does cause disruptions up the chain,
Preston said, since it leaves higher-ups scrambling to find dealers
and distracts them from their main purpose.

Preston said the arrests are also meant to send a message to young
people who might become the easily replaceable dealers on the lowest
rung of the trade. Although the ages of the accused range from 15 to
44, the majority fell between 19 and 24.

"There are consequences and you will find yourself being charged, you
might be going to remand, you'll be fingerprinted, we'll put you
through the system and you may end up with a criminal record," Preston
said.

The majority of the dealers who operate at the street level often have
no prior arrests and little previous involvement with police, he said.

That's part of the reason why at least 37 of the accused have been
released from custody already, Preston said, with no guarantee they're
not right back on the street selling drugs again.

"That's one thing that, from a police perspective, can be the most
frustrating aspect of any project, that we can make an arrest and
sometimes, before the paper is even settled on our desk, they can be
out," he said.

Police laid more than 120 charges and seized 205 grams of cocaine,
which has a street value of more than $16,000. They also seized more
than $14,500 in cash, small amounts of marijuana and other drugs and
six vehicles.

The vehicles were taken under Alberta's Victims Restitution and
Compensation Payment Act, which was passed in November. Once property
is seized in connection with a crime, such as the six cars seized in
the drug sweep, a civil court decides whether it should be returned to
the owner or whether the province can sell it and give the money to
identified victims or victims' groups.

Karl Wilberg, the director of the province's Civil Forfeiture Office,
said the cars may be kept whether or not the people charged are found
guilty.

"Because it's a civil process and we're going after the property not
the person, their guilt or innocence doesn't affect what that property
was used for.

"If somebody uses that property for an illegal act, that's all we're
concerned about," Wilberg said.

While other vehicles could possibly have been seized in connection
with this sweep, Wilberg said the province is interested only in
taking those that can be sold for significant amounts.

"We don't want to take a car that's worth $500. There's no benefit to
that when we're already so busy. We have to decide that they're
vehicles where we can sell them, get some money, and turn it over to
the victims."