Police seize cash, drugs in Project SAINT

Print

E-mail

Text

Ruth White measures the success of anti-drug efforts among 14 Division police by the amount of time it takes undercover officers to make a buy.

White, the superintendent for 14 Division of Toronto Police Service, said it took her undercover officers three days to make a buy. That means good things for the community, she said.

Toronto police arrested 72 people, who now face more than 280 drug and weapons related charges, following a street-level drug eradication program in 14 Division called Project SAINT (Stop All Illegal Narcotics Trafficking).

Police made a total of 24 drug purchases during the two-month project, one of several the division conducts each year.

Police seized 13.969 kilograms of marijuana; 8.788 litres of GHB (also know as the date-rape drug); 2.575 kilograms of hashish; 1.248 kilograms of cocaine; 111.83 grams of heroin; 277.8 grams of psilocybin, 205.95 grams of ecstasy; 132.37 grams of oxycodone; 83.08 grams of methamphetamine; 10.12 grams of ketamine; .75 grams of LSD; and .19 grams of morphine.

The street value of the seized drugs is estimated at $748,735.

Police also confiscated a 12-gauge shotgun, 278 shells, a stun gun, pepper spray, brass knuckles and two expandable batons, as well as $88,665 in Canadian currency and $2,263 U.S.

White was at the annual general meeting of the Parkdale Residents Association (PRA) on Nov. 27 and gave those in attendance a preview of what the project accomplished.

The initiative comprised 17 operational days that ran from Oct. 27 to Nov. 28 in six downtown west neighbourhoods: Bloor Street West/Lansdowne Avenue; Bloor Street West/Ossington Avenue; Queen Street West/Lansdowne Avenue; King Street West/Strachan Avenue; and King Street West/Dufferin Street.

It was an 'opportunity-buy' project where undercover officers would wait until they were approached by drug dealers.

White said 14 Division is working hard to keep the streets safe, but these kinds of operations are tough on the officers. White even told members of the PRA about an officer who had 21 pins implanted in a leg after being "taken down" by a drug dealer.

She went on to say that she receives letters all the time from the public advising her of where residents see problems they would like police to deal with. She said she wasn't asking residents to stop writing about problems, but she did have another request for them.

"What I am asking you to do is demand the same penalty someone in a small town would get as someone with the same conviction would get in Toronto," she said.

Someone in Huntsville who is convicted of having one kilogram of cocaine might go to jail for three years whereas in Toronto they would likely get probation, White said.

Following her presentation, White fielded questions from the residents. They asked about her stand on legal injection sites, which White said she cannot accept.

"I support education, I support reaching out," she said. "I cannot accept safe injection sites."

"Are there police walking the beat on Queen Street?" one resident asked.

"They walk it as regular as they can get there," White replied, adding that all of the residents' associations within 14 Division are asking for the same thing - increased police presence.

But, she has a total of 40 officers, and they "get spread pretty thin".

Finally, White was asked what the community and the PRA could do to assist police in their efforts.

She told them, exactly what they were doing at the meeting that night - working together.

She told them when the PRA plants trees, try to make sure they are tall, not bushes, so criminals can't hide behind them.

"It's called crime prevention through environmental design," she said.

Or by taking advantage of safety assessments, increasing lighting and fencing, but most of all, by getting out and taking back the streets.

- With files from Joanna Lavoie