Pubdate: Sat, 01 Mar 2014
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/letters
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Jennifer O'Brien
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

RECORD-BREAKING DRUG BUST 'HILL OF BEANS,' EXPERT WARNS

Man, 23, and a Teenage Suspect Charged in Seizure of $360,000 of 
Cocaine and Marijuana

It was the biggest bust ever by London police, but on the streets 
three bricks of cocaine doesn't amount to a "hill of beans," says an 
outreach worker.

And maybe that's the problem.

If taking three kilograms of cocaine and a press to make it into 
sellable bricks for $100,000 each off the market at once - as London 
police did in a seizure announced last week - doesn't make the stuff 
scarce, how big and how widespread is London's drug scene?

"It's very, very accessible to people on the street," said Henry 
Eastabrook, who works with drug users every day as part of his 
outreach through the London Intercommunity Health Centre. "We have a 
significant amount of organized crime in this city . . . and because 
people feel a physical and emotional need to use (drugs), it's 
convenient and profitable for them to bring in drugs."

"I don't want to sound unfair to the police because they do good 
work, but my first response is it doesn't make that much of a 
difference," Eastabrook. "It's a hill of beans. It's one bean."

Cocaine, sold in $5 and $10 quantities for crack users or $100 grams 
for snorting, can be found easily in London, Eastabrook said.

It may be only one bean, but it's three times the amount seized 
during any one bust by London police alone last year, and three times 
the total amount seized the year before, said Det. Sgt. Chris McCoy, 
head of the force's guns and drugs section.

"I'm not saying I'm totally seeing a pattern change, but over the 
past 12 months, we've had some pretty significant seizures at the 
kilo level of cocaine," he said.

McCoy agreed the seizure wouldn't have much impact on the supply in 
London, but called it a "small victory."

"It's put some of the higher level dealers in London on notice," he said.

He said investigators were glad to get the mechanical press, which 
indicates the people using it were "key level dealers," because the 
press is used to form one-kilogram bricks of cocaine that had been 
filled and stretched with additives.

Bigger busts usually require more resources and end up involving RCMP 
or OPP because the probes have taken police across jurisdictions, he 
said. "We were able to do this investigation from start to finish. 
There were no wiretaps or stings."

Though police have not publicly linked any city street or biker gangs 
to the seizure, McCoy said it's a safe assumption gangs were involved.

The case was also unusual in that one of the suspects charged with 
producing cocaine was only 16.

"This is so far off the scale, having someone this young," said 
McCoy, adding he's never seen someone so young with such a 
large-scale drug offence.

The other suspect is 23.
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