DIAL UP DOPE BIZ ON RISE

Crack Delivery Hard To Fight

What's relatively cheap, just a phone call away and waiting to be placed in
your hot little hands by a fleet of delivery drivers? One hint -- it's also
highly addictive, illegal and it comes in rock form.

It's crack cocaine, and it's most common distribution methods -- so-called
dial-a-dealer operations -- have reached epidemic proportions, according to
law enforcement sources.

"The profits are high, and the stakes are low," said Crown attorney Clyde
Bond, who's argued countless court cases involving dial-a-dealers.

Like pizza, crack cocaine can be ordered over the phone, then dropped off
at a pre-determined location by one of scores of drivers who blanket the
city 24 hours a day.

TRICKY TO PROVE

The convenience of such a set-up is obvious, but the very nature of the
operations makes them difficult for police to crack.

Since drivers are constantly moving, it's much harder for police to track
them. And since cell-phones can be ditched at the first sign of trouble,
it's often tricky to prove an offence has been committed.

"They switch people all the time, they switch phones all the time -- it's a
very fluid, quick-moving operation," said Bond.

"That, and there's a lot of money waiting to be made."

Bond says drivers are often young, first-time offenders with little in the
way of prior records, which makes it difficult for lawyers to make
sentences stick once charges make it to court.

But police are making in-roads. Dealers often find themselves selling
directly to undercover cops and investigation work in recent years has
resulted in scores of arrests.

Unfortunately, while the maximum sentence for cocaine trafficking is life
in prison, many dial-a-dealers end up getting off with a conditional sentence.

The relative ease of the delivery work and the high profits that can be
earned often draw people back to the life, however. And in recent years,
judges have become a lot less forgiving of repeat offenders, sending them
to prison if their circumstances warrant it.

Police consider dial-a-dealers to be "street-level" offenders, though it
should be remembered the product they're pushing links them to far more
ominous criminal activity.

Crack cocaine remains one of the most addictive substances on the market --
and one of the most destructive.

A little advice? Stick with pizza.