COP RAIDS GET DOPE OFF STREET

Cocaine, Crack, Grass Scooped Up

Six suspected drug dealers were arrested and nearly $500,000 in drugs
was seized in a series of busts Thursday that just happened to come
prior to this weekend's Get Together Downtown.

"It was a good day for us," said Det. Sgt. Jeff Bellingham, of the
Winnipeg police drug unit. "It's nice to have it off the street for the
big event."

MID-LEVEL DEALER

While executing a search warrant of an apartment suite at 60 Whellams
Lane, cops collared a 30-year-old man and seized nearly two pounds of
cocaine with a street value of about $56,000 -- which represents more
than half of the total amount of coke seized all of last year.

"It's what we consider a mid-level dealer that supplies street-level
dealers," Bellingham said.

Also on Thursday, two men in their 20s were picked up in the area of
Mountain Avenue and McPhillips Street with 18 rocks of crack cocaine,
while a 17-year-old was arrested after cops found 95 rocks of crack
cocaine at a residence in the 500 block of Redwood Avenue. The crack had
a street value of more than $4,500.

"Cocaine is pretty much epidemic proportions," Bellingham said. "We do
what we can. We'd like to get lots more and there's lots more to be
had."

The drug unit also uncovered a marijuana grow operation at a residence
in the 200 block of Jamieson Avenue. Police arrested two men in their
40s and seized 236 plants in various stages of growth, 1,632 grams of
marijuana and a .32-calibre handgun.

The marijuana had a street value of more than $400,000.

"There's still lots of marijuana out there, but there's no question that
was a good arrest and a good seizure," Bellingham said.