Pubdate: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 Source: Telegraph-Journal (Saint John, CN NK) Copyright: 2009 Brunswick News Inc. Contact: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/onsite.php?page=contact Website: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2878 Author: Tammy Scott-Wallace Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?216 (CN Police) RCMP TOOK SERIOUS RUN AT DRUG TRADE IN '08 HAMPTON - Police are not naive enough to think they halted the drug trade in Kings County, but it did take a significant hit last year, said Sgt. Steve Gourdeau from the RCMP's District 3 headquarters. From his office the plain-clothes unit works, investigating and handling tips coming in on illegal activity from Sussex to Grand Bay-Westfield. In 2008, Gourdeau said, members caught some big dealers. Among them, second-time offender George Moore, the beloved butcher of Apohaqui, who was dealing in major drugs, including expensive and highly addictive cocaine. He was back selling from his friendly meat shop while he was still on parole on similar offences, and is now serving six years in prison. Arden Gregg, who will have his day in court during his drug trial on Feb. 13, also consumed police manpower in 2008. He faces charges for possession of what police called a "candy store" of illicit drugs, including cocaine, from his Marrtown home. Smaller dealers like 21-year-old Corey Cunningham of Apohaqui, fairly new to the business of dealing coke, was sent to prison for two years last week. And the courts are still sentencing some of the batch of dealers arrested last year for trafficking in a variety of other drugs - the most popular marijuana, OxyContin and hashish. Just this week Bloomfield senior Marcel Morrissette was sentenced to house arrest after what police found during a bust on his home last March. Plain-clothes officers were relentless, Gourdeau pointed out, with dealers of all sizes with their plethora of addictive offerings busted and convicted. Often in the same raids came guns and illegal cigarettes. "We did catch more, and bigger ones, last year. I think we caught nearly every one in the Sussex area," he said. "If you start selling coke, people start complaining and someone's going to come for you." Gourdeau said in a Sussex bust last year, as a convict was brought out of the home he dealt drugs in, neighbours gathered on the sidewalk and cheered as police were making their seizures. "People just don't want these people around, it attracts a certain type of crime," Gourdeau explained, saying 85 per cent of crime, including mischief, break and enters and violent assaults are "directly linked to drugs." He cannot say if there is an elevation in drug use or just more enforcement. Unlike the measurable property crimes, for example, the true prevalence of drugs in a community is hard to determine, he added. There has been an increase in drug prosecutions, Gourdeau explained, but in 2008 there was also an emphasis put on catching the guys selling the dope. "It was a priority for our district," Gourdeau said. The annual performance plan is drafted each year in consultation with municipalities and local service districts the three detachments in the district serve. "Last year drugs were named repeatedly as our number-one priority so we said 'let's go at it.' And we did," he explained. Gourdeau has no doubt when one drug dealer goes down another one fills in to meet the demand of the lucrative business. "You're not going to dry up that kind of activity. There is always someone else out there to take over," he said. While drug crime will always be on the police radar, Gourdeau said the RCMP in the district has been given a new set of priorities for this year reflecting recent problems. The mandate includes reducing the incidents of public nuisance at local businesses, slashing the number of property crimes/thefts from vehicles, improving enforcement of laws for off-road vehicles and snowmobiles, and contributing to employee skill development with more specialized training initiatives. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin