ONE DAY POLICE SWEEP TARGETS DOWNTOWN CRIME

Operation 'Clean Up' saw police hitting the streets last week, on the day
commonly dubbed as "Welfare Wednesday."

With money on the streets, police commonly see an increase in drug activity
and other crime, reports Corporal George Preston. To combat the jump in
police incidents, officers from the Hope and Chilliwack detachments, along
with the Chilliwack Street Drug Unit, swept through the community in an
"effort to clean up the downtown core," reports Preston.

The sweep was carried out between noon and 7 p.m., on August 27 by
undercover officers, ending with a number of drug seizures and charges being
recommended by police.

The downtown eastside-style policing initiative, ended with two charges laid
for possession of Crystal Meth, three Crystal Meth seizures, one female
arrested on six warrants for passing cheques under false pretenses, three
seizures of hash oil and the destruction of two marijuana grow-ops.

Police later destroyed sixty-six marijuana plants, with information they had
gained from Operation 'Clean Up.'

Police raided a home in Hope on Sixth Avenue near Old Hope-Princeton Way
where the resident happily handed them the pot plants over the back fence of
the home, where they had been growing in the back yard. Police also
confiscated a small number of plants from an outdoor grow operation on a
side road near American Creek.

The special enforcement initiative was shut down by 7 p.m., and was followed
by a quiet night, once a particular "element of the community" learned of
the enforcement push and stayed out of sight for the rest of the evening,
report police.