DRUG SWEEP DEFUSES 53

Cops Collar St. Jamestown Street Dealers, Suppliers

A street-level drug sweep by Toronto Police netted 53 people on 180
charges in the St. Jamestown area.

Project Defuse, launched in September, targeted dealers on the street
and followed them to their immediate suppliers, said drug squad
Det.-Sgt. Larry Cowley.

Among those arrested yesterday was a man who had dislocated a Toronto
cop's shoulder in a 1994 crack sweep in Parkdale after he pulled a
knife during a violent arrest.

Another man was arrested after he tried to rip off an undercover
officer who had backed out of a deal, Cowley said.

Other suspects had been arrested for selling bogus crack to undercover
officers.

"Basically, because of the violence in the 51 Division area ... there
was an escalating concern about the street-level activity," Cowley
said.

Tipping Off Officers

He said the community had been tipping off investigators about the
illicit trade in the area bounded by Bloor and Wellesley Sts. and
Sherbourne and Parliament Sts.

Cowley said the plan was to first arrest street-level dealers. Then,
when their replacements showed up, they were arrested as well.

Detectives also tried to follow the dealers to identify those who
supplied them.

A number of the arrested dealers don't live in the neighbourhoods
they're trafficking in, he said.

"They were going into people's neighbourhoods, they're plying their
crack cocaine trade," he said.

Cowley said the trafficking "brings a neighbourhood down.

"People who use drugs, often times prostitution involved, or they
commit thefts and robberies and break-and-enters into homes to supply
their habits.

"It has a mushrooming effect," he said.