Rob Baker, lead guitarist for the Tragically Hip, is chatting about the surging market for cannabis-company stocks. It's high dough - some might say too high. The short-term gains make things all the more interesting for Mr. Baker, king of the northern power chord, and now a stakeholder in the weed sector. But he's more focused on the long-term prospects for Canada's new recreational cannabis industry, and two companies in particular: Newstrike Resources Ltd., a consumer-focused producer in which he and his band mates have a significant ownership stake, and CanniMed Therapeutics Inc., a medical-marijuana grower and distributor that has launched a friendly bid for Newstrike. He's a firm supporter of the transaction, which is not yet a sure thing. [continues 1049 words]
Sept. 18: 1,300 pounds of marijuana, Hidalgo County. April 8: 10,472 grams of methamphetamine, Luna County. March 7: 192 pounds of marijuana, Grant County. The more than 250 border-area drug cases handled by a New Mexico task force as of late September are typed up on 10 pages. And they represent only a fraction of the drugs pouring into this state through its southern border. The U.S. Border Patrol seized more than $85.4 million worth of weed, cocaine, heroin and other drugs in New Mexico in fiscal 2005, which ended Sept. 30. That figure doesn't include the drugs seized by the border task force, which is made up of New Mexico State Police, Border Patrol and other law agencies. The estimated street value of the task force's drug seizures so far this year tops $10.6 million. [continues 384 words]
Need to score some drugs but can't leave the house because of the kids? No problem - the Albuquerque Police Department delivers. Undercover city narcotics detectives earlier this week arrested a man after he allegedly made a deal to buy 12 pounds of marijuana from a detective posing as a dealer. The detective, Lucas Townsend, said Friday he tried to arrange a meeting place with 25-year-old Benjamin Naranjo, but Naranjo said it would have to be at his home on Sharp Spur SW because he was watching his children. [continues 197 words]
Country singer Carlene Carter and the bass player for rock music legend Tom Petty were arrested in Albuquerque on Tuesday night after the pair was caught in a stolen Jeep Cherokee, according to State Police. A search of the gold Cherokee turned up nearly 3 grams of black tar heroin and a "large amount of drug paraphernalia," according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court against Carter, the 45-year-old stepdaughter of country icon Johnny Cash. Carter allegedly admitted the drugs and paraphernalia were hers, and she was booked into the Bernalillo County Detention Center on felony charges, including receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle and heroin possession. [continues 536 words]
Hector Cisneros tried to stop gunfire from breaking out Monday night between his neighbors and two alleged drug dealers, police said. That - and simply having the living-room light on as the family watched television - may have led suspects Jesus Barthelemy and Manuel Labore Espinoza to mistakenly target the Cisneros' Southwest Albuquerque home and send a string of 9mm gunfire into the living room, police said. The construction worker's toddler daughter was killed in front of his eyes. His wife and 13-year-old daughter were wounded. [continues 1234 words]
Amtrak has pulled the plug on a controversial computer that gave the Albuquerque office of the Drug Enforcement Administration direct access to the train's ticketing system. However, Amtrak police said this week they will continue to provide information they glean from the ticketing system to other police agencies across the United States to help catch train-riding drug couriers. Amtrak police also will continue to receive a portion of the assets that drug agents seize off trains around the nation. [continues 750 words]
Amtrak is providing federal drug police in Albuquerque with ticketing information about passengers - and Amtrak police get 10 percent of any cash seized from suspected drug couriers at the Downtown station. As part of what officials describe as a one-of-a-kind arrangement, a computer with access to Amtrak's ticketing information sits on a desk in the Drug Enforcement Administration's local office. It can provide drug agents with information such as passengers' last names, where they're coming from, where they're headed, whether they paid for their tickets with cash or credit and when they bought their tickets. [continues 1224 words]
CALGARY, Alberta - Police swooped down in raids across southern Alberta Friday to arrest 40 Hells Angels and associates on hundreds of drug, weapons and conspiracy charges just two days after a similar massive crackdown on the outlaw biker gang in Quebec. In what was dubbed "Operation Shadow," 200 city police officers and Mounties staged predawn raids at the Hells Angels' Calgary clubhouse and other residences in the region, seizing handguns, rifles, an Uzi submachine gun and about C$1 million ($635,000 U.S.) of illegal drugs, officials said. [continues 505 words]
Grandma's going to the pen. Vickie "Grandma" Epperson, a 73-year-old Albuquerque woman, made her way into a state District Courtroom with the help of a walker Wednesday afternoon and pleaded no contest to trafficking heroin. "I can't hear too good," the small woman in the floral-print dress and black sweater told Judge James F. Blackmer during the hearing. But she said she understood exactly what was taking place. It's the second heroin trafficking conviction for Epperson. Her first conviction took place while she was in her late 60s. [continues 578 words]
Albuquerque police and prosecutors are hoping the state Legislature, in its waning hours, will push through a bill boosting the potential prison time for those caught dealing methamphetamine. They're also hoping the governor would give the final OK to such a bill. Gov. Gary Johnson has been behind several drug reform bills this session that would, among other things, decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and make first and second drug-possession offenses misdemeanors instead of felonies. But Johnson's top law-enforcement officer, state Department of Public Safety head Nick Bakas, said Friday that he and Johnson both believe using drugs and dealing them are two very different issues. [continues 504 words]
When Larry Robert Prieto was arrested at his Albuquerque home Wednesday, he allegedly showed police where crack cocaine was hidden and said he had been selling drugs. "He apologized to us," said Detective Thomas Gutierrez, who worked on the case. Prieto allegedly said he was peddling drugs to make ends meet and said "it's a tough, cruel world," Gutierrez added. But Thursday, the 37-year-old Prieto walked out of jail after the District Attorney's Office dismissed charges. In fact, 67 percent of the suspected felons caught by city and county law officers in the past several days have had their charges dropped. [continues 667 words]
Drug money pays the rent for Albuquerque narcotics police. It also pays some overtime, buys and rents their undercover cars and foots the bill for high-tech surveillance gear. But the steady flow of money seized from suspected dope dealers - which totaled about $750,000 last year - could dwindle because of a recent New Mexico Supreme Court ruling, says the Albuquerque Police Department captain who oversees drug and vice detectives. Capt. Ruben Davalos said APD drug detectives won't be able to keep doing what they do without the money they have been getting from the seizures. [continues 702 words]
A group of law-enforcement leaders handpicked by Gov. Gary Johnson to serve as his drug advisory council said in no uncertain terms Wednesday that it's dead set against legalizing drugs. And one member, U.S. Attorney John Kelly, sharply criticized Johnson for not providing specifics -- and solutions -- when he said the idea of decriminalizing drug use should be included in the debate on the nation's drug problems. "It would be a lot easier to deal with this if we had more than a sound bite from the governor," Kelly told 15 other members of the state Drug Enforcement Advisory Council during Wednesday's meeting at the Albuquerque Police Department academy. [continues 421 words]
