PROJECT DIGGER CRACKING DOWN ON LUCRATIVE DRUG TRADE

Joint Force Out To Bust Sophisticated Drug Dealers

Police forces in the Sudbury area will "go as far as it takes" to
disrupt and curtail the local drug trade, Greater Sudbury Police
Chief Alex McCauley warns.

Organized crime runs the lucrative trade, McCauley said at a joint
police forces press conference Tuesday.

Drug dealers are more sophisticated and more dangerous than ever
before, said the chief.

But that won't deter the new joint forces team, known as Project
Digger, in its efforts to intimidate, bust and prosecute drug
dealers, producers and users, McCauley added.

Drug enforcement officials from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
Ontario Provincial Police and Greater Sudbury Police announced the
formation of the six-officer team Tuesday.

The drug force will work together on a daily basis to share knowledge
and best practices, more thoroughly investigate suspects and
co-ordinate evidence gathering.

The three forces will also commit human resources during arrests,
some of which, McCauley indicated, could be high risk.

Recognition of Sudbury's drug problem made the formation of the Joint
Forces Team urgent, said Supt. Morris Elbers, the acting director of
the OPP's drug enforcement section.

Maintaining a consistent drug enforcement presence in the region is
among the goals of the initiative - a goal that has been previously
hampered by the restrictions of policing boundaries.

"This will be very positive for the people of this area and will
create a lot of problems for the criminals," said Insp. Marty
VanDoren, the RCMP's deputy criminal investigations officer for
Ontario Region, O Division.

In an interview, VanDoren said the RCMP would bring its extensive
knowledge of the international drug trade and a broader national
perspective to the team.

Creative, highly advanced policing is needed to keep drug dealers and
producers on guard and off balance, he added.

"They have become more aware of the police techniques that are used
and have learned to respond to them," VanDoren said, explaining that
drug trade insiders may avoid dealing over the phone because of the
use of wiretaps, or have learned to evade certain surveillance
practices.

"The tools we used in the 90s may not work today," he said. "We have
learned to be more creative."

When asked if police investigators are as cunning as organized
criminals, VanDoren pointed to a table that displayed some of the
spoils from recent drug seizures.

"We make seizures all the time," he said. "We won't stamp out the
drug trade overnight, but we intend to keep the bad guys looking over
their shoulders at all times."

The city's police service and the OPP have worked successfully
together on drug-related cases for the past seven months, pressing
215 drug charges, seizing an estimated $1 million in drugs and
another $40,000 in property and currency.

A portion of those seizures was on display during Tuesday's press
conference. The drugs of choice in the Sudbury area - marijuana,
Ecstasy, cocaine and hashish - along with bundles of cash, filled one
end of the table.

At the other end, an assortment of firearms - handguns and rifles -
crowded the table.

Unlike in the past, weapons have become a tool of the trade for
dealers, police officials have recently said.

Demand for drugs, recent reports suggest, is high in Sudbury. Asked
whether the drug trade could ever be curtailed if the demand remains
high, police officials admitted that it likely could not.

But drug use is limited to a small minority of the population,
McCauley said, and educational programs aimed at impressionable young
people, coupled with the new, enhanced enforcement, will make a dent
in the supply and demand for drugs.

None of the officials at Tuesday's press conference would reveal
details on how intelligence is gathered, or whether undercover
officials are used to gather information within the drug trade.