CALGARY CRACK DEALER, 8, BUSTED

CALGARY -- Street-hardened Calgary cops are shocked and disturbed after
nabbing an eight-year-old crack dealer during a downtown drug bust, Sun
Media 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 vice unit.

Calgary bicycle police were on patrol along the Bow River Friday afternoon
when they saw a drug deal going down.

"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 to a second person, the one holding the dope, Chaffin said.

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 streetwise the eight-year-old was.

The boy is being placed under the Child Welfare Act.

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.

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.

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.