TEENS ANSWER CALL FOR DIAL-A-DOPERS

Kids Are Getting Young Friends to Help Sell Drugs

Abbotsford teens involved with gang-controlled dial-a-dope operations
are increasingly turning their peers into new recruits when business
is booming or ranks are thin, according to police.

Const. Ian MacDonald with the APD said when the word comes down from
senior gang members to get more bodies, teens represent an easy pool
to fish from.

"Organized crime and the drug trade . . . they're not taking out ads
for these positions, it's word of mouth.

But if you start employing more people between [the ages] of 15 and 18
years, who are they going to get when you start putting pressure on
them to bring more recruits in?" asked MacDonald.

"They're going to be tapping their friends or acquaintances who are
going to be 15 to 18 years old."

When gangs are being targeted by police or rivals they tend to circle
the wagons and go with the people they know and can trust, said
MacDonald, who added gangsters knowingly use this market because they
have dropped gender and age boundaries.

"By offering employment to a couple of people in that age group, you
extend your potential recruitment pool to new areas," he said.

Despite concern in the department about the number of young people
involved, and the desire by law enforcement to hit gangs with
everything they have, MacDonald said in the end it comes down to numbers.

"There's only so many warrants you can execute in a given year and
only so many people you can take off the streets."

Targeting certain areas of the city can yield good busts and clear out
a few tentacles of a dial-a-dope operation and its supplier, said MacDonald.

"But does that mean other dial-a-dope operations being run by 16- and
17-year-olds was impacted by it?

"Not necessarily so."