ANOTHER VICTORY IN CITY'S WAR ON DRUGS

But Cocaine Conviction Still Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

A British Columbia man pleaded guilty yesterday to a record-setting
cocaine case that stunned Winnipeg police and triggered a new wave of
crime in the city.

Kelvin Brent Asham, 39, faces sentencing after admitting to carrying
10 kilograms of the highly addictive drug inside a 1991 GMC 4x4 truck.

The seizure, made in November 2001, was the largest in the city's
history and had an estimated street value of $1.3 million. By
contrast, police seized only 1.7 kilos of cocaine in all of 2000.

Seizures have been growing in frequency in recent years as organized
crime groups like the Hells Angels view Winnipeg as a fertile market.

So, too, have the sentences from the courts. Judges increasingly take
a hardline stance against cocaine trafficking, with most first-time
offenders earning a trip to the penitentiary.

And anyone who thinks the influx of drugs doesn't affect them hasn't
read the newspaper lately. There have been a flood of recent,
high-profile criminal cases in which cocaine addictions have been
blamed for bizarre sprees and rampages that have terrorized city
businesses and residents.

Last week, a Winnipeg man was sentenced to eight years in prison for
robbing and breaking into 10 businesses to fuel his drug habit --
including a church, group home and bowling alley.

The judge, Jeffrey Oliphant, called him a "one-man crime wave" in
Winnipeg.

Michael Syrnyk, the so-called Yuletide Bandit, is doing 23 years
behind bars for a cocaine-induced rampage in which several
armoured-car guards were shot at and robbed. Numerous innocent
bystanders were forced to duck a barrage of bullets outside busy city
malls and stores.

Syrnyk's rampage ended nearly two years ago when Syrnyk -- strung out
on coke -- shot a Winnipeg police officer and took a woman hostage in
Chinatown for several hours.

In Asham's case, members of the Winnipeg Police Service's drug squad
- -- they called themselves the Rogue Crew -- stopped a truck they
believed had ties to the Hells Angels outside the Chapel Lawn Memorial
Gardens. Police initially found nothing inside the truck, but towed it
back to their garage and began stripping it down. Inside the spare
tire, officers found 10 packages of high-grade cocaine.

"It's as pure as if it came right off the boat," Sgt. Ken Shipley said
at the time.

Police believe the cocaine had come from British Columbia, where the
Winnipeg Hells Angels fall under the umbrella of the Vancouver biker
chapter. The drugs were slated to be sold either by the kilo or the
ounce to mid-level drug dealers in Winnipeg and then "stepped on" --
cut with different agents so that its purity is reduced, but its
resale value would more than double. These lower-level dealers could
also "cook up" the cocaine and turn it into crack, a highly potent
smokable form of the drug.

Asham's arrest came just as the Winnipeg chapter was about to
celebrate their first anniversary as full-fledged members of the
world's most notorious outlaw motorcycle gang.

Privately, police believed they had made a major dent to the bikers'
drug supply and credibility, as they were instantly out the $500,000
wholesale value of the seizure.

"To replace what they've lost, they're going to have to come up with
another $500,000. That's serious money," one officer said.

Today, there is continued turmoil in the Hells Angels as five
associates get set to stand trial on violent, intimidation-related
charges police believe are linked to the drug trade.

The alleged incidents include firebombings, drive-by shootings and
conspiracy to murder.

And while police have continued to battle the bikers and other crime
groups by making sizable drug seizures, police admit they are still
only getting the "tip of the iceberg" of what is coming into the
province, getting on to the streets and into the noses of junkies and
criminals.