BOY, 8, USED AS DRUG MULE

Cops Stunned With Arrest of Young Crack Dealer

CALGARY -- Street-hardened cops are shocked and disturbed after nabbing an
eight-year-old crack dealer during a downtown drug bust, The Sun has learned.

"I just about fell off my chair when I learned about it -- how someone got
an eight-year-old (into drugs) is shocking," said Staff Sgt. Roger Chaffin
of the Calgary Police Service vice unit.

"I can't recall a younger child involved with such a significant possession
amount in an area known for high density (drug) trafficking."

Members of the CPS bike unit were on patrol near the Bow River walk area on
the northside of Riverfront Avenue. Friday afternoon when they allegedly
saw a drug deal going down.

Common Trick

"They could see (the adult suspect) was dealing with a child," Chaffin said.

"The boy was 'muling' (holding) the drugs."

It's a common trick for drug sellers to make the cash deal, then point the
buyer in the direction of a second person, the one holding the dope,
Chaffin said.

"The dealers see it as a way of severing themselves from the product, to
sell it without getting arrested."

The boy was nabbed with an "eight-ball," or about three grams, of rock
cocaine worth about $300 when police swooped in and made the bust.

After cops got over their initial amazement of finding a child dealer, they
were equally shocked to discover how street-savvy the eight-year-old was.

"He was evasive with the officers who attempted to question him," Chaffin said.

And police don't believe the boy -- who The Sun cannot name and is too
young to face charges -- learned that lesson on his own.

"Someone must have had coached him in what to say already," Chaffin said.

Police arrested a male adult suspect, and the province's Child Welfare
department nabbed the boy -- who is not related to the man -- in a downtown
apartment where both were living.

After the riverfront bust, police were tipped to the boy's downtown
address, and social workers seized the boy's two younger siblings -- a
four-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl -- from the apartment.

Medical Exam

All three children are now in emergency care.

"It's despicable for someone to get a child that age involved in drugs,"
said an angry Iris Evans, provincial minister of children's services

Evans made the unusual order that all three children undergo a medical exam
to see if they are physically well.

"I did that because there are drugs involved," she said.

Evans said the children could eventually be returned to their parents.

"But not until we're sure they're safe," she said.

Besides the fact the eight-year-old was holding the dope at the time of the
bust, Chaffin shudders to think what may have happened if the child had not
been arrested.

"Someone gave the boy the one thing addicts crave above money, water or
food," he said.

"If the addicts become aware of a kid holding crack, well, adult
traffickers worry about being rolled (mugged for their drugs) so what kind
of peril is an eight-year-old boy in?"

The seasoned cop can only wonder what the future holds for someone
introduced into the seedy world of drug dealers at such a young age.

"The danger is now he's immersed in this area," Chaffin said.

"Does he see other people smoke crack? Does he smoke it himself?"

Kieng Nhuan Tran, 26, has been charged with two counts of possession of
drugs for the purpose of trafficking and one count of breach of recognizance.

Tran walked out of jail yesterday, free on bail.

He will make his next provincial court appearance Sept. 16.