'DIAL-A-DEALERS' TARGET HIGH SCHOOL KIDS

Crack Cocaine Being Peddled In Upscale Areas

NO one should be surprised some city high school students are
experimenting with a street drug more associated with the gritty inner
city than Winnipeg's tonier neighbourhoods, school officials said Thursday.

Their comments were in response to news Thursday that city police
arrested several alleged crack cocaine "dial-a-dealers" in the past
week that counted as their customers students from Tuxedo's all-male
St. Paul's High School, Shaftesbury High School next door and Oak Park
High School in Charleswood.

"This doesn't surprise me," St. Paul's High School principal Tom
Lussier said. "Drug dealers are trying to target high school students
everywhere in the city."

Lussier said there is no evidence any student from the private
Catholic school actually bought crack from the accused dealers. The
school only became aware of the matter when police released the
information to the media.

Lussier also said there has been no recent incidents at the school
involving drugs.

He said school staff are vigilant in teaching students about drug
use.

"Every teenager makes their own choices," he said. "We can only teach
them to make the right choices."

Shaftesbury principal John Karras echoed those comments, adding he was
surprised police would release the information without telling the
schools first.

"Typically, we have a very good relationship with the Winnipeg Police
Service," he said.

He also said he was not aware of any incidents at his school involving
drug use.

Police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Dennison said investigators believe
students from each school were crack cocaine customers, buying from
the alleged dealers off school grounds.

Dennison also said police didn't learn of the matter from school
officials, but from intelligence gathered by Street Crime Unit
investigators.

He said the investigation started April 17 and led to a raid at an
address in the 100 block of Sparrow Road in Charleswood. Twenty rocks
of crack cocaine and approximately one ounce of powder cocaine was
seized. Two 18-year-old men and a 21-year-old man face drug
trafficking charges.

Street Crime Unit officers also went after drug dealers in north
Winnipeg, seizing 100 rocks of crack and 160 grams of powder cocaine
during two vehicle searches and a raid at an address in the 500 block
of Adsum Drive. Total value of the seized is pegged at $13,380.

A 33-year-old man, two 25-year-old men, a 26-year-old woman and a
33-year-old woman face drug trafficking and drug possession charges.

Each of the accused in both cases was released on a promise to appear
in court at a later date. Their names were not released.

Dennison said from Jan. 1 to March 31, the Street Crime Unit has
seized more than $2,551,000 worth of drugs and 14 firearms. Officers
have also arrested 473 people.

Crack facts

* Next to alcohol and marijuana, one of the most used substances among
city youth.

* Largely connected to organized crime as cocaine has to be imported
into Canada from South America.

* It is smoked. Produces an immediate and intense effect: Euphoria,
increased energy and alertness.

* Police say the drug is easily found in city. All buyers need is a
dealer's cellphone or pager number.

* In 2004 only four per cent of older students said they had used
crack cocaine, according to an Addictions Foundation of Manitoba
survey of drug use. More than eight per cent said they had tried
powdered cocaine.

* Crack or rock cocaine varies in price; roughly a rock of crack
cocaine sells for about $40 in Winnipeg. In Manitoba's north, the
price can be as high as $70. Price fluctuates with supply.

* In 2005 Winnipeg police seized 9,214 grams of crack cocaine, an
increase from 2004.

- -- Sources: Winnipeg Police Service and Addiction Foundation of Manitoba