OFF THE WIRE
Police in Quebec and New Brunswick executed search warrants and made arrests yesterday morning in an attempt to disrupt the Hell's Angels' drug trade.
"Today's events are the result of a year-long investigation and they will have significant and long-lasting impact on organized crime in this province," says RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Farrah, head of J Division's Federal Drug Section.
Members of the drug section, along with the Bathurst City Police, District 8 and 9 RCMP, and the Beresford, Nigadoo, Petit-Rocher, Pointe-Verte Police, executed search warrants at locations in the Bathurst, Beresford, Tracadie and Saint-Sauveur areas. Farrah says one arrest was made in New Brunswick yesterday and an arrest made Saturday in Landry Office, near Tracadie-Sheila, was also tied to this investigation. Other arrests were made earlier in the lengthy investigation.
Police in the Montreal area were also busy, with 400 officers executing approximately 50 searches in 25 municipalities in the greater Montreal area as part of the same investigation. As of late yesterday afternoon it's believed a couple dozen people were arrested in Quebec.
In Montreal, police say the Hell's Angels were one of the groups being targeted, while in New Brunswick it was people who associate with that outlaw motorcycle gxxg.
Farrah explained that the New Brunswick RCMP drug section began an investigation in spring of 2010 into high-end drug traffickers with ties to organized crime. They targeted groups they believed were buying cocaine from Hell's Angels in Montreal and distributing it throughout New Brunswick.
"New Brunswick has traditionally been Hell's Angels territory, controlled by them," says Farrah.
In this particular investigation, he says they were targeting the trafficking of cocaine "at the kilogram level."
The investigation began targeting one group in New Brunswick and eventually expanded to target a second group. Police in New Brunswick eventually started collaborating with police in Montreal and both investigations culminated in yesterday's raids.
As part of the New Brunswick investigation, police also executed a search warrant at a residence in Landry Office on Saturday and a 46-year-old man was arrested and later released. Police seized cocaine and marijuana during that search and earlier in this investigation searches resulted in the seizure of large amounts of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine pills, cash and items believed to be proceeds of crime.
"New Brunswick is unfortunately not immune to organized crime, but disrupting and deterring the illegal drug trade is one of the RCMP's priorities in our efforts to become Canada's safest province," says Farrah.
He adds it's possible more searches and arrests could come over the next few weeks.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/1458572
