DRUG BUST AT AMERICAN

One of the major distribution centres for cocaine on the Downtown Eastside
was busted Tuesday in a show of force that included heavily armed emergency
response team members.

The afternoon raid at the American Hotel, involving 50 police officers,
resulted in the seizure of 40 rocks of crack cocaine, 40 flaps of cocaine
powder and $10,000 in cash, which police suspect was earned earlier in the day.

Four males were arrested in the hotel's pub and three rooms, said Insp.
Kash Heed, in charge of the Vancouver Police Department's drug section.

At times, a drug transaction in the hotel's pub occurred almost every
minute for an hour, said Heed, who believes that drugs are being sold at
other hotels in the area, although he wouldn't name them while they're
under investigation. "We know that's not the only place you can buy crack
cocaine."

The bust is the result of a two-month undercover operation dubbed Prism, in
which police bought cocaine from dealers inside the hotel's pub at 928 Main
St., a few blocks from the infamous drug corner at Main and Hastings.

The investigation showed the customers were largely addicts from the
Downtown Eastside and there was no evidence people were coming from outside
the area to buy drugs, Heed said.

The operation is run by organized crime but is not linked to bigger players
such as the Big Circle Boys Asian gang or the Hells Angels, both of which
have been busted in the past for drug dealing, he said.

Additional people are believed to be involved in the operation and police
are currently searching for the ringleaders. Heed wouldn't say how many
people police are looking for, but noted the emergency response team was
present Tuesday because the undercover operation revealed the dealers could
be armed with guns.

The American Hotel is owned by the numbered company GS0137 Ltd. and the pub
is managed by a woman named Helen, who refused to comment or take a message
for the owner. The hotel and pub are still open for business despite the
bust and a simultaneous visit from city hall business licence inspectors.

Heed said police aren't implicating the owner or manager of the hotel in
the criminal charges, but typically call in city inspectors to determine
whether management was aware of the illegal activities and acting responsibly.

Barb Windsor, city hall's deputy chief licensing inspector, said findings
of the police and inspectors will be collected in a report before the city
decides whether to take action against the hotel's owner.

In many cases, business licences are reviewed by city councillors, who can
choose to shut down a hotel for illegal activity, poor management or unsafe
premises-as they did last year with the North Star and Evergreen hotels on
the Downtown Eastside, where drugs were seized.

Tuesday's bust is part of the drug squad's strategy of disrupting or
suppressing the open-air drug market in Vancouver, primarily on the
Downtown Eastside, said Heed, who added the approach is working.

Despite the public's criticism of the revolving-door court system, where
criminals often don't get jail time, Heed said a recent case-where a
69-year-old man is now serving two years in jail for selling crack
cocaine-shows judges are handing out jail sentences to dealers.

Crack cocaine is a form of cocaine that has been chemically altered so it
can be smoked. It looks like small lumps or shavings of soap but has the
texture of porcelain. It's smoked using a glass pipe or even a soft-drink
can, which can be perforated on the side and used as a makeshift pipe.