WE'RE VIOLENT BUT SAFE

Despite Rash Of Killings, Edmontonians Shouldn't Worry, Says Top City
Drug Cop

Four homicides in as many weeks doesn't mean people should start worrying
about getting shot on their way home from work, says a top Edmonton drug cop.

"Call it gangs, call it organized crime, call it whatever you want. In
the end, it pretty much all comes down to drugs. If you don't traffic
them and if you're not selling them on the street, statistically this
city is still a pretty safe place," said Det. Clayton Sach of the
RCMP/EPS Green Team.

He busts grow-ops for a living and often rubs shoulders with the
homicide cops - who have been busy chasing down leads in last month's
after-hours club stabbing, a downtown apartment shooting on Dec. 1,
the dumping of a burned body on the city's northside on Dec. 2 and the
fatal shooting of a woman in a car Friday morning.

"Drugs and violence usually go hand in hand," Sach
said.

"It used to be the harder drugs where we saw lots of guns ... I
remember the first time we found a gun at a grow-op. We just about
fell over dead. But we're starting to notice more with pot now and
Green Team officers are on higher alert for weapons than we used to
be. "

Sach said Green Team members will now come across grow-ops where they
also find substantial amounts of other drugs, like cocaine and ecstasy.

"When you get into that kind of thing is when you start finding the
sawed-off shotguns and handguns."

Cops just unveiled a cache of weapons and cash seized in a $430,000
drug bust earlier this year following a pair of raids on city homes.

They expressed concern over the growing trend among city dealers to
stockpile weapons to protect themselves against would-be crooks.

Sach said such stockpiling is less common in pot circles - perhaps
because chronic pot users are less prone to the violent, erratic
behaviour associated with the abuse of harder drugs - but is becoming
more frequent because dealers are diversifying.

"We had one bust not long ago in a 1,000-square-foot house where we
found three handguns, $30,000 in cash, over 5,000 ecstasy tablets and
a kilogram of cocaine in a Safeway bag."

Such an array of drugs under one roof suggests multiple drug dealers
are not only working, but living together.

"I guess it's a sign of the times," Sach said. "The economy is booming
and there's no shortage of demand. I'm sure most of these killings can
eventually be linked back to the drug trade, but it's a different
climate than it used to be."

Edmonton has tallied 32 homicides this year. Calgary, meanwhile, has
recorded 29 killings in 2007.