VILLAGE DOGGED BY DRUG DEALERS

Area Thriving With Young Customers

A few days ago, Const. Stewart MacPherson found a teenage girl wandering
around the corner of Osborne Street and River Avenue bawling her eyes out,
near a gathering spot outside Subway everyone calls The Circle.

The beat cop asked her what was wrong and she blurted out, "I wanna buy
grass but no dealers are around."

Too bad, he thought, shaking his head.

He told her it was probably a good idea for her to move along, go home and
not come back.

Such is life in Osborne Village, home to one of the city's most public, if
not most thriving, spots for petty drug trafficking.

Police and area business owners say they're doing their best to get rid of
the dealers to make the area safe for everyone, but they add they're up
against a system that allows the indifferent pushers to operate almost with
impunity. They say what causes part of the problem is society's increasing
acceptance of casual drug use.

Another factor is the persistence of the dealers, some of whom are backed
by organized gangs such as the Zig Zag Crew and the Hells Angels.

"We don't want to let our town square be overrun," said Subway co-owner
Craig Kitching. "I'm not going to tolerate it. I intend to deal with it.

"I can deal with my own little piece of it, but I think it's part of a
larger problem."

Kitching opened his Subway outlet about six months ago and since then has
been constantly trying to get the dealers, and their customers, to stop
using his property to buy and sometimes use drugs -- everything from
marijuana and hash to crack cocaine.

He said the odd customer -- most are young high school students -- is fresh
from a break-and-enter or gas robbery trying to get their next fix of
crack. "These guys are literally vibrating," he said. "Some come into my
washroom just to light up. Who wants to get between some guy and his next fix?"

Kitching has added fencing to the area and, along with officials from the
next-door Gas Station Theatre, has started legally barring some dealers
from the corner.

He said he'll do more, such as put up additional fencing, to protect his
staff and customers from the dealers and their customers. He's also hired a
private security firm to do daily spot-checks. As well, he's also had
discussions with area Coun. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge) and MP Anita Neville
about public safety.

"It's a beautiful area, but if we can't control the dealing, we're going to
have to take stronger action," he said.

Nicole Langevin, interim administrator at the Gas Station Theatre, said
police and the courts have to get tougher with drug users. If you drive
away the demand, the supply will dry up.

"It's a societal issue," she said. "It's not just a River and Osborne issue.

"The most frustrating part is the lack of respect. They think they own the
corner. You can come by morning, noon and night and see a drug deal going on."

Kitching and Langevin admit Osborne Village has always had a reputation for
liberal tolerance, but that the open drug dealing and the potential for
violence threaten the safety of residents -- many are seniors -- and other
people, such as shoppers and diners. MacPherson, the beat cop for the area,
said a surveillance camera installed in the neighbourhood last year has had
some impact on the drug trade, but that persistent dealers now know how to
avoid getting caught by it. They'll use runners, guys on bikes, so that
money and drugs don't change hands at the same time.

The other problem is that high school kids, like the crying girl, have
always bought drugs at The Circle -- it has a reputation across Canada
among panhandlers and hitchhikers -- so that the hard-core dealers must
stay to retain their client base.

MacPherson noted that the clients are not runaways or drug addicts.

"A lot of these kids are from River Heights and Tuxedo," he said. "They
think it's kind of fun to come down here and hang around, be a bum and
panhandle for a while. Then they'll drive home in their Audi."

Winnipeg police community Const. Kif Girma said police do what they can to
arrest the street dealers, but added the force has focused its resources
more on the big-time suppliers.

That means the undercover guys are working on the big fish, leaving
enforcement of street dealers mostly to uniformed police officers.

"It's hard to enforce it wearing the uniform and driving a blue-and-white,"
Girma said. "We are a little frustrated," he added. "For these dealers,
there's no deterrence. We can arrest the same kid a hundred times, but they
come back and they're back at it.

"They're making $200 to $300 a day. Where's the incentive to change?"

Police say right now, the drug trade is mostly controlled by the Zig Zag
Crew, the puppet club of the Hells Angels.

The Hells Angels had a presence in the area's cocaine trade up until police
drove them out more than 18 months ago.

Police, with the help of the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, threatened
to yank an establishment's liquor licence if they allowed certain gang
members and associates -- police supplied a list of names -- on the
premises. The cocaine problem dried up almost overnight, moving to another
business in another part of the city.

That's the crux of the problem, police say. They know they'll never
eliminate drug dealing completely in Osborne Village -- they'll only move
it somewhere else.

That's fine with Kitching.

"I believe this isn't a big problem if we have the mindset to deal with
it," he said. "I pay an improvement tax. I expect it to be taken head-on."