Include Officer E-Mails, Phone Numbers, Jurors Hear

CONFIDENTIAL Winnipeg police and justice documents -- including officer e-mails and phone numbers, profiles of local gang members, reports on prior investigations and secret plans and strategy -- fell into the hands of the Hells Angels, jurors heard Monday.

The massive security breach has been revealed publicly for the first time at the trial of a full-patched biker, who has pleaded not guilty to nine charges including drug trafficking, extortion, proceeds of crime and participating in a criminal organization.

[continues 736 words]

I am glad to see students writing into the Free Press to express their views and speak up in support of their school. I also want to let students, parents and teachers at Kelvin High School know that I regret it if my comments about drugs left the impression that Kelvin was being singled out. I stated then and will repeat that all high schools have problems with drugs.

To put my remarks in context, they were said at a committee meeting in which I was trying to get through to other councillors that we need to put a crime prevention initiative in place to deal with school problems such as drugs, bullying and other issues.

[continues 190 words]

Coun. Jenny Gerbasi's comments regarding cocaine being sold in a city high school infuriate me. The comments were, at the least, naive, and, at the worst, deliberately provocative, publicity-seeking, irresponsible ramblings. If the councillor has knowledge of this activity and is legitimately concerned, she should be informing the school first and foremost. As a parent of children who attend that school, she should offer her services in attempting to solve problems such as these. They are not school problems exclusively. We all own the problem.

[continues 128 words]

Re: Cocaine sold in school, March 6.

I am a Grade 11 student at Kelvin High School. I've been attending the school for over two years, and in that time, I have never been approached by anyone trying to sell me cocaine or any other drug.

Being a parent at Kelvin does not mean that Coun. Jenny Gerbasi should be making generalizations about an entire school community. As well, it seems that every time the media needs a story about youth and drugs, alcohol or smoking, they turn to Kelvin, which in my experience is one of the less troubled schools when it comes to this issue.

[continues 60 words]

I am writing this letter from inside Kelvin High School. Just outside the bathroom, in fact. As I write this, I see, hear, smell no evidence of cocaine, I have no dirty, scary drug dealers "pushing" cocaine or any other drug on me. I am a student in Grade 11, have attended Kelvin for three years, and as of this year, have not witnessed a single drug deal in the bathroom, the halls, or anywhere in Kelvin. While I know it happens, and I've heard friends and acquaintances talk about it, it is both outlandish and ignorant to assert that drugs will be forced on you in the bathrooms at Kelvin, as Coun. Jenny Gerbasi so profoundly stated. A little more than secondhand knowledge and a little less bias is required before making outrageous statements such as Gerbasi made.

[continues 81 words]

An elaborate police investigation into the Hells Angels took a big hit when their secret weapon -- an undercover agent -- suffered a major mental breakdown that left him on the verge of suicide, jurors heard Tuesday.

The pressure of infiltrating the local chapter of the world's most notorious criminal organization proved too much to handle for Franco Atanasovic.

"He was an emotional mess," RCMP Staff Sgt. Paul Saganski said of Atanasovic, a career criminal who was paid $525,000 for his dangerous work which involved drug deals captured on audio and video surveillance.

[continues 631 words]

Career Criminal Used To Infiltrate Notorious Gang

Manitoba police and justice officials knew they had to get creative to go after the Hells Angels -- but nobody expected a unique undercover investigation would pay such dividends, a jury heard Monday as one of the province's biggest biker trials finally began.

What started with seven specific targets ended with 15 arrests, several kilograms of seized drugs and countless hours of video and audio surveillance of drug deals going down.

The first accused to go on trial is full-patch member Ian Grant, who is facing nine charges including drug trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime, extortion and participating in a criminal organization. He has pleaded not guilty.

[continues 666 words]

Gerbasi Claims Students Can Buy Drugs In Washrooms At Kelvin

COCAINE is being sold in the washrooms at Kelvin High School, Fort Rouge Coun. Jenny Gerbasi claimed during a city hall debate about placing more police officers in Winnipeg schools.

On Monday, city council's protection committee approved a plan to double the number of police officers in Winnipeg School Division institutions from three to six, with two of the new officers going to inner-city schools and one working in schools south of the Assiniboine River.

[continues 523 words]

VANCOUVER'S so-called safe injection site for drug addicts has always been controversial, not just in that city but across Canada. Now it is the subject of an international complaint.

A United Nations agency last week said that Insite, as the facility is called, violates international drug-control treaties that Canada has signed because it offers a controlled environment in which addicts can legally shoot up or smoke up. This program, and other less ambitious 'harm-reduction' projects across the country, provide drug paraphernalia such as clean needles and crack pipes to habitual drug users -- Insite is unusual in that it also provides a place where they can be used.

[continues 392 words]

Groups Seek To Expand Program

Drug Use, Violence Among Concerns

A group of parents wants police in more of the city's high schools to stop crime before it happens.

Grassroots organizations representing parents from the inner city and River Heights will be at city hall this morning looking for funding to expand the schools resource officer program.

Barbara Coombs, chairwoman of a River Heights group called Parents for an Aware Community, said her group is hoping the city will contribute funds for one police officer to patrol three area high schools.

[continues 380 words]

Jury Finds Him, 3 Associates, Guilty

THE head of the Manitoba Bandidos launched into a profanity-laced tirade and vowed the notorious biker gang was here to stay -- moments after a jury found him and three associates guilty of kidnapping and torturing a rival drug dealer.

Friday afternoon's verdict could represent a crushing blow to the local chapter, as the men are facing lengthy prison sentences for their roles in the February 2005 attack. A fifth accused had previously pleaded guilty.

[continues 467 words]

Use of cocaine and ecstasy among younger people, including those who attend Portage Collegiate Institute, is growing in Portage la Prairie.

"There's a rising concern with the use of cocaine in the younger population," said Barry Rud, prevention education consultant for Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.

Brenda Foster works with students at PCI four days a week. The AFM rehabilitation worker offers services in the form of education and prevention, accepts referrals for people using or affected by drug use and conducts assessments for addictions.

[continues 493 words]

Will Process Fibres Into Green Insulation

FOR the second time in almost 10 years, efforts are underway to develop a multimillion-dollar hemp processing plant in Dauphin.

Parkland BioFibres Ltd. is looking to build a $14-million raw industrial hemp processing operation to make building insulation.

The 50 members of the Parklands Industrial Hemp Growers Co-Op have committed $2 million to the project and promoters are seeking another $3.3 million from private investors.

Hemp is seen as an excellent environmental and functional alternative to pink Fiberglas insulation. The Dauphin plant also plans to produce non-woven matting for use in the horticulture industry, fibre for the paper recycling industry and short fibre for horse and pet bedding.

[continues 466 words]

THREE Winnipeg police officers shot in a drug raid were cheered and praised by 800 friends and family members Wednesday night.

The three officers were shot Dec. 7 when they entered 723 Jubilee Ave. on a search warrant after a confidential informant told an officer 21-year-old Daniell Anderson was dealing cocaine and marijuana from a home he shared with his parents and girlfriend.

They were wounded when Anderson allegedly opened fire through a bathroom door. Anderson was also severely wounded in the exchange of fire. He is charged with attempted murder.

[continues 410 words]

Students learn about drugs and alcohol, and pledge to stay away from them

By Trish Hogue

Grade 7 students from Balmoral school recently graduated from a 10-week DARE course, where they learned about many aspects of drug abuse.

DARE (drug.abuse.resistance.education) is a program run in partnership with schools and police agencies across North America that teaches kids about the effects of drugs and ways to be drug-free.

Const. Sandy Deibert, Stonewall RCMP and DARE officer, said the program is available to any school that is interested, and the program mainly focuses on tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol use.

[continues 607 words]

Re: High praise for war on drugs (Jorge Barrera, Feb. 23).

John Walters is living a lie when he talks about pot being addictive. No credible medical study to date has found marijuana to be anything but mildly psychologically addictive, and certainly nowhere near as addictive as legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco.

When John Walters talks about marijuana addiction, he is referring to the choice that Americans are often given when arrested for possession: face a stiff punishment, often years in jail, or admit to being "addicted" and ask for rehab. Obviously, most opt for "treatment" in order to avoid criminal sanction, which is often harsher than that given to rapists and murderers, and John Walters gets another admitted "addict" to bolster his ridiculous claims.

Bob Tessier

Winnipeg

Must have been the B.C. bud.

[end]

Thank you to John Gleeson for writing such a sensible and honest article (Drug profits and the big picture, Point of View, Feb. 18). It was so refreshing to read a drug-prohibition news piece backed up with science, facts and logic instead of quotes from police about their "beliefs" and (questionable) statistics.

When discussing public health and safety issues, it's absolutely essential to be unbiased, unemotional and factual -- especially by referring to reputable and independent studies, such as the Fraser Institute report, which Gleeson mentioned.

This is the kind of newspaper article we should see more often. Kudos to the Winnipeg Sun for running this important information.

Jodie Emery

Editor, Cannabis Culture Magazine

High praise.

[end]

UNICEF has completed its Global Report on Child Welfare and Happiness. The world's 21 most developed countries were calibrated on no less than 40 different criteria. The Netherlands are the world leaders on child welfare. Dutch children enjoy the best social support systems, education standards and the report states that Dutch children are the happiest.

Canada ranked 12th and the United States finished 20th.

I am just wondering if there is a connection between the Dutch way of doing things and the way we and our southern neighbours are conducting business.

[continues 175 words]

Stony Mountain Institution Attributes Rise In Drug Interdiction To Coordinated Strategy

Stony Mountain Institution has a long history of stopping illegal drugs from entering its walls. However, in the last year and a half there has been a sharp increase in the amount that Corrections officers have been seizing.

The year 2006 was a record year for Stony. Staff intercepted 75 illegal drug shipments, with a total value of $248,000 inside the Institution.

Taken alone, the statistics suggest a sharp increase in the amount of drugs entering the prison. But Institutional Search Co-Ordinator Christer McLauchlan believes that a new, teamwork-oriented approach has made it far more difficult for drugs to get inside.

[continues 509 words]

Winnipeg Sun columnist Robert Marshall's Valentine's Day column was almost worth a news story.

Because in that column, Marshall, a retired and highly respected veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service, added his name to the growing list of credible cops from across North America who are arguing that the war against drugs is a folly of monumental proportions.

How monumental?

How does $400 billion a year sound?

That's the estimated annual profit to organized crime from the drug trade worldwide. That means each year, as long as drug prohibition continues to be enforced as the law of the land, organized crime grows $400 billion richer, $400 billion stronger.

[continues 437 words]