Four early morning raids target cocaine sales on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

VANCOUVER – Vancouver police officers have raided four locations in the city’s downtown core, as they try to shatter an organized crime group they believe supplies cocaine to the Downtown Eastside.

Emergency response team members moved in Friday morning to execute four search warrants.

Insp. Mike Serr says the raids are part of an investigation by the department’s organized crime section.

He says they believed drug dealers related to gangs were selling cocaine to vulnerable residents of the poverty-stricken neighbourhood and the busts are aimed at protecting those residents from the violence linked to the illegal drug trade.

Serr hasn’t identified the gangs targeted by the early morning raids.

He also hasn’t said if anyone has been arrested or what drugs may have been seized.