DRUG SCENE: IT'S NO MOVIE

Local Problems Cut Across Class, Social Lines

Det. Const. Perry Astephen can tell by looking at the faces in a jury how
little its members know about metro's illicit drug scene.

"They think they are hearing about a movie or another city," the veteran
Halifax Regional Police narcotics officer said in an interview.

"They look at you like there is no way this is happening in Halifax," he
said. "But it does. Every day. You're naive to think that it doesn't. We
are a smaller city with big-city crime."

Det. Const. Astephen says that in the city's drug-dealing subculture,
traffickers gamble that the rewards of the trade will outweigh the risks.

Crack cocaine, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and hashish are the main drugs
being distributed in metro Halifax, Det. Const. Astephen said.

And while some neighbourhoods have become notorious, the drug problem
sprawls right across metro's social and class structure.

Cocaine is one of the more addictive drugs and in its powdered form, a more
sophisticated and expensive favourite of the fashionable classes.

On the other end of the scale, "crack cocaine is cheap," Det. Const.
Astephen said. "That's where you see the street-level sales and prostitutes
and other addicts abusing the drug."

Most cocaine is smuggled in through ports or dropped from boats along the
coastline.

Det. Const. Astephen said the smugglers are sophisticated, especially those
who can put down $300,000 to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine and pay for the
expensive equipment needed to process it.

But large quantities of drugs landing in Halifax usually are not
redistributed or repackaged here. They are transported west to Toronto or
Montreal and then filter their way back.

Most drug dealers start off as users, become abusers and then turn into
traffickers to support the habit they have developed, he said. Some, on the
other hand, start off dealing from scratch and don't abuse at all.

"Ideally, if you are a good drug trafficker, you're not an abuser because
you don't eat into your own profit," Det. Const. Astephen said.

Prostitutes often get involved in trafficking to support their habits,
acting as intermediaries between mid-level traffickers and buyers on the
street.

Det. Const. Astephen said traffickers like dealing with prostitutes because
the women provide a layer of insulation from buyers, and from the authorities.

The prostitutes get a better deal on their drugs because they know the dealers.

"The relationship between the trafficker and the purchaser is paramount,"
Det. Const. Astephen said. "It dictates the price.

"If I don't know you, I'm not going to give you a good deal. But if you
come to me every day for two weeks, you are going to end up getting a
wholesale price as opposed to a street-level price."

Det. Const. Astephen said upper-level dealers usually bring in 10 kilograms
of cocaine at a time. Police sources are quoting $30,000 as the current
price of a kilogram. Selling it on the streets of Halifax for $100 a gram
would net a profit of $70,000, spread among the various networks
distributing the drug.

Det. Const. Astephen said importers may have a network of five people
distributing the product. Each member of the network might be given two
kilograms about every two weeks that could either be sold in 100-gram lots
or cooked into crack cocaine that street dealers sell in $20 chunks.

"They are taking the risk and you're getting a profit," Det. Const.
Astephen said. "The more profit you make, the more risk you put yourself at."

Dangerous and often violent turf wars between rival dealers happen at every
level because of the profits at stake, he said.

"It's not uncommon for mid-level guys to be involved in robbing each
other," Det. Const. Astephen said.

Once a dealer finds someone else's stash, it's not unusual for armed
traffickers wearing bulletproof vests to kick in a door as if they were
police officers.

"We have heard from sources they will even yell 'Police!' before barging
through the door."

If the dealers inside think it is police coming through the door, they're
more likely to surrender than to fight, he said.

Last year, the regional police-RCMP integrated drug unit conducted about
125 searches in metro and seized about $5.5 million worth of narcotics.

As well, many home invasions are drug-related but police become involved
only if someone is shot or stabbed. Even then, the victims are often
unco-operative and the investigation dies.

In fact, most home invasions involving traffickers are not even reported to
police.

Det. Const. Astephen said most crime in Halifax, especially thefts,
break-ins, robberies and assaults on the street, can be attributed to drugs.

And the drugs are often worth more than cash.

"Powdered cocaine may cost $100 a gram to buy on the street, but to a
mid-level trafficker he can get it much cheaper and the potential profit is
astronomical."