COPS CRACK DOWN ON DRUG DEALERS

Police hope drugs are harder to find in downtown Kingston today.

A four-month undercover investigation concentrating on lower Princess
Street between St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and the waterfront
concluded yesterday morning with a sweep of five city addresses, the arrest
of 18 people and arrest warrants issued for 33 others.

The joint OPP-city police investigation - dubbed Project Babysitter -
focused on drug dealers.

"The reason it was called Project Babysitter," Police Chief Bill Closs
said, "was not only the youngness of some of the people involved in the
drug world ... [but because] as a police chief I've taken this position
that young people in the city of Kingston [are] extremely vulnerable when
they come into the downtown core and make friends with people who they
don't really know.

"We dubbed it Project Babysitter to keep our officers focused on what this
was all about - and that was trying to look after the young people of
Kingston that were using the downtown core."

Closs said police didn't target the people buying and using drugs, only
those dealing.

Ten people under 18 years old were charged, the youngest is 15. The rest
are adults, the oldest being 54.

So far, police have laid 63 drug trafficking charges and 34 Criminal Code
charges and seized drugs that OPP Det. Supt. Jim Hutchinson estimates to be
worth about $7,500.

Hutchinson, director of the drug enforcement unit, noted the variety of
drugs undercover officers found. They included heroin, cocaine, Dilaudid,
ecstacy, methamphetamine, marijuana, hashish and the prescription
painkillers Percodan and Percocet.

He said most of the young people buying drugs stick to the cheaper
purchases, such as marijuana or hashish. Police say a hit of ecstacy costs
$40, while a minimum amount of heroin sells for $50. A Dilaudid pill sells
for $25.

"Not every kid has that much money," Hutchinson said.

"They're going to buy what's available and what they can afford."

In his five years as police chief, Closs has concluded that illegal drugs
are too plentiful and too available for a city the size of Kingston.

"The fact of the matter is that drugs ruin a person's life," Closs said,
"and it leads to other crime, such as break-and-enters to support the habit
and that's why we focused on it."

He admits the latest operation barely makes a dent in the problem.

"We realized there's heavy, deeply involved drug use within the city," he
said, "but this was a project to try to send a message to the kids."

Closs said the sweep was initiated by "complaints from tourists, from
business people and community members about a various number of issues in
the city of Kingston ... rowdiness, vandalism, unruly behaviour, blatant
use of drugs [while] sitting on park benches, the blatant selling of drugs."

Kingston Police officers were also reporting a significant amount of open
drug activity on lower Princess Street. Hutchinson said the complaints were
all valid.

"There were complaints of syringes being found on the streets here. Our
officers saw injection use on the street.

"There were complaints about smelling marijuana; our officers saw marijuana
being smoked on the street, so what was complained about was found to be
there," he said.

Hutchinson said that "during the investigation there was evidence of
assaults and intimidation and usually those crimes were connected to bad
drug debts or a drug dealer trying to protect his or her turf."

And Closs said that "there was too much activity, from our point of view,
in the area of St. Andrew's Church."

The two undercover officers made nine of their 53 drug buys on the corner
of Clergy and Princess streets and initiated 10 other transactions that
were concluded at residences nearby.