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OD death spurred dance club raid
TONY BOCK/TORONTO STAR
33 charged after officers find flea market-style drug den but police say they can't shut it down
It was the death of a Hamilton man who overdosed on the date-rape drug GHB that gave police the green light to raid a downtown after-hours club they have suspected for years was a drug den.
Despite charging 33 people after a 6:30 a.m. raid Sunday and seizing $30,000 worth of drugs and $35,000 in cash, it is possible The Comfort Zone, at 480 Spadina Ave. near College St., will be open for business this weekend.
The club has been open for more than a decade and lost its liquor licence in 2002. Det. Sgt. Egidio Roseto told a news conference yesterday that police don't have a way to shut the club down but he is hopeful the building will be declared a fire hazard and closed.
"It's an absolute jungle. It's pitch black. It's very hot. The lights are black lighting from the ceiling. It's very, very dirty," Roseto said when asked to describe the interior of the club.
Police allege bartenders and security staff directed party-goers dancing to techno music to drug dealers, based on the drug they were after, Roseto said. Many of the employees working that night were charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics. He described tables set up like a flea market, offering a variety of drugs. Police seized heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and GHB.
"Once all the patrons were removed ... the floor, the seats, the little tables where you put your drinks, along the sides of the dance floor, were covered with little vials and pills," Roseto said.
Police have attempted to raid the business in the past but have never been successful in obtaining a search warrant, he said.
But this investigation began when officers were told in January about the accidental overdose death of 26-year-old Andrew Fazio. With the support of Fazio's mother and sister, police began an undercover investigation and over six weeks gathered enough evidence to obtain a search warrant.
Fazio's mother, Karen, and sister, Sarah, attended the news conference yesterday at police headquarters. Sarah said her brother tried GHB in January and, after a night out with some friends Jan. 27, overdosed at home.
"It has been so hard without my brother around. And I don't ever want another family to feel the way that we feel," said Sarah Fazio, breaking into tears while clutching a framed photo of her brother.
Karen Fazio encouraged people living in neighbourhoods with places like the Comfort Zone, to do something to close them down.
After the raid, Roseto said he got a call telling him about a 19-year-old woman in hospital who had overdosed on ecstasy and GHB the day before from drugs she says she got at the Comfort Zone.
DJ Jay Force, at the club Sunday when 89 officers stormed in, said he will be filing a formal complaint with police over the alleged roughhouse tactics of two officers.
He said in an interview he was leaving the club just after 6 a.m. when he was grabbed from behind by two men, thrown to the ground, punched, kicked and then cuffed.
It was only after he was handcuffed that the two identified themselves as officers, and told him he was being charged with obstruction of justice for supposedly warning people about the raid.
Investigations by police, fire services and Toronto Municipal Licensing and Standards continue
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