CRACKDOWN COULD HAVE RIPPLE EFFECT

Surrey, Burnaby and New Westminster police departments are bracing for an
increase in drug activity in their communities now that Vancouver police
are cracking down on drug dealers in the Downtown Eastside.

Vancouver's special enforcement team began its three-month crackdown last
Monday.

By Wednesday, Insp. Doug LePard, commander of the team, had already noticed
a decrease in drug activity in the 100-block of East Hastings.

"I'm looking eastbound up Hastings right now and I just see normal
pedestrian traffic - it's quite amazing, actually," said LePard via
cellphone from Abbott and Hastings.

LePard, however, can't pinpoint exactly where the glut of dealers and the
addicts have gone.

So far, the suburbs haven't seen a spin-off effect, but based on evidence
from previous crackdowns in municipalities along the SkyTrain line, the
likelihood of an increase in drug activity is real.

In 1998, for example, New Westminster police hired an extra five cops to
combat an influx of Honduran crack dealers. The controversial cleanup
worked, only to push the dealers to Burnaby and Vancouver.

"The word is out in the drug community - don't bother coming to New
Westminster to deal," said Staff Sgt. Casey Dehaas of the New Westminster
police department.

Burnaby RCMP then implemented its own crackdown in the Metrotown area,
where roughly 200 refugee claimants from the Tegucigalpa area of Honduras
were living in three apartments in the 6600-block of Dow Avenue.

"That was a bad spot, but that was a long time ago," said Burnaby RCMP
Const. Phil Reid, noting many of the dealers were simply dispersed to
Vancouver. "We're not sure what's going to happen now (with the Vancouver
crackdown), but we're definitely trying to prepare."

Meanwhile, Surrey has its own drug problems. Mounties have combined forces
to crack down on dealers in Whalley, said Surrey RCMP Const. Tim Shields.

Shields said he's aware of the ping-pong effect when one police department
conducts a crackdown, but said Mounties are prepared for any influx from
Vancouver.

"We'll be monitoring it and staying on top of it," confirmed Shields.

In Surrey, Burnaby and New Westminster, police are riding the rails in
uniform and plainclothes to combat any spillover effect from Vancouver's
crackdown. Vancouver police have also teamed up with SkyTrain special
constables to pick off people transporting stolen property to the Downtown
Eastside to sell for drug money.

Insp. Kash Heed, in charge of Vancouver's drug unit, doesn't believe the
suburban police forces have to worry about a spillover. Heed said with the
glut of pawn shops, health services, cheap hotels and food in the Downtown
Eastside, it's difficult for a dealer or an addict to leave - even with a
beefed-up police presence.

"A lot of people think they're going to drive it out of the city of
Vancouver - well I wouldn't hold my breath there," he said. "These dealers
will go where the demand for their product is, and right now the demand is
in Vancouver."

Project Torpedo, a 13-day covert operation conducted by the drug unit in
March and April, determined that 47 per cent of 162 suspected dealers live
in the Downtown Eastside, 44 per cent live elsewhere in Vancouver and only
nine per cent live outside the city.