A sex offender with a history of assaulting young First Nations women is among 11 new arrests in a Vancouver police campaign targeting the "worst of the worst" violent drug predators in the Downtown Eastside.
The suspects arrested through Project Rescue are facing a combined 47 counts including charges of sexual assault, drug trafficking and extortion. Police say each person had an alleged role in the exploitation and degradation of vulnerable women in the impoverished neighbourhood.
"[Women] meet a predatory drug dealer who is all too willing to give them drugs on credit," Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said. "When they can't pay or they are late with their payment, the nightmare begins."
Police displayed a collection of seized drugs and weaponry, including brass knuckles, knives, replica rifles and nunchucks. Dealers use torture and terror as routine business practices, Chu said.
One of the suspects in custody is convicted sex offender Martin Tremblay, who faces four counts of trafficking cocaine and one count of cocaine possession for the purposes of trafficking.
Police called on anyone in the community with information about the 45-year-old to come forward and help ensure a conviction.
"He is in jail now and can't hurt you," Insp. Dean Robinson said. "We believe the only way we can guarantee that he won't harm more women is if he stays in jail."
Tremblay, who sometimes goes by Daniel Simard and Joseph Walter Martin Tremblay, was found guilty in 2003 of five counts of sexual assault. Robinson said Tremblay used alcohol and drugs to "lure and incapacitate his victims."
He was released after serving just over a year.
Women's advocates have complained that not enough was done to protect the public during Tremblay's sentencing. He was not bound by a condition that he stay away from young girls on his release from prison.
Tremblay's name popped up again last year after 17-year-old Martha Hernandez was discovered lifeless in his Richmond home. Her friend Kayla LaLonde died the same day on a street in Burnaby; both girls died of a lethal mix of drugs and alcohol.
Tremblay has denied any involvement in the two girls' deaths, saying he did not supply drugs to the teens. He told CTV News he wasn't at home when Hernandez died.
Suspect accused in decade of DTES violence
Another of the Project Rescue arrests was Fabian Brown, a man who has allegedly used intimidation and violence to manipulate people in the Downtown Eastside for more than 10 years.
"He relies on his victims being too afraid to report to the police," Porteous said.
Brown has been charged with sexual assault, extortion, receiving payment at criminal interest rate, break and enter, forcible confinement and assault by trespass.
Porteous said he hopes the arrests will be encouraging to the community, and said resources are available to any victims of violence.
Police also announced the installation of two new emergency phones in the neighbourhood, at 360 Columbia St. and 48 Powell St. The previously-installed 911 phone at 312 Main St. remains.
