Pubdate: Wed, 07 Oct 1998
Source: Vancouver Province (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.vancouverprovince.com/newsite/news-c.html
Authors: Steve Berry and Ann Rees, Staff Reporters
Section: A1 / Front

`WE'RE BEING INVADED'

Business: Get Drug Dealers Off Our Streets

New Westminster business leaders say Honduran drug dealers have
``invaded'' the downtown.

And now the businesses have gathered a 1,000-name petition to pressure
government into helping them take back their streets.

``It's like we're being invaded by a foreign army,'' said John Locke,
a director of the New Westminster Business Improvement
Association.

The crack-cocaine traffickers are controlled by a highly organized and
aggressive international crime ring, according to a report by New
Westminster police. They consulted law-enforcement officials from
across North America who have dealt with the Honduran drug problem.

``They are extremely well organized, very aggressive and extremely
intelligent in their operation,'' U.S. intelligence officials warn in
the report.

``Honduran-based organized crime has been increasing in most major
communities on the West Coast.''

The report points to Hondurans as ``significant players'' in the
importation of cocaine from Central America, mostly through Los Angeles.

In Burnaby this summer, RCMP constables Ajit Tiwana and Shiv Achari
were dispatched to clean up a city block in where up to 200 Honduran
cocaine dealers were living and operating. The nest of drug dealers
was cleaned out by August.

In New Westminster, Locke said some businesses have been driven out
since the Hondurans started to arrive last November.

``They're taking over block by block. It became a crisis by
May.''

Locke said many residents are afraid to shop downtown and business has
been hurt.

``People are afraid they're going to lose their livelihood,'' said
Locke.

The dealers, mostly refugee applicants, first operated at the 8th
Street SkyTrain station and have since moved along Columbia Street and
now infest side streets. The users are in the back alleys and doorways.

A May survey of businesses showed that 22 out of 25 respondents had
been victims of crime in the past year. Drug dealing was their top
concern.

The petition, which will be sent to municipal, provincial and federal
politicians, is blunt in its condemnation of what organizers see as
government inaction on drugs.

``Our right as a society to have safe streets has been taken away from
us by drug dealers and your government is doing nothing to stop it,''
it reads. ``The criminals and drug dealers are poisoning our society.''

New Westminster police Staff-Sgt. David Jones is in sympathy with the
merchants.

``I have a lot of empathy for what the businesses are going through,''
he said, adding that the situation has not become as bad as in
Vancouver's downtown east side.

``We are not there and we are not going to get there,'' he vowed.
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Checked-by: Patrick Henry