POLICE HIT THE ROAD TO CRACK DOWN ON DRUGS

Every Ounce Of Dope That Is Sold Travels During Its Journey From
Seller To Buyer On The Roadways.

That somewhat obvious observation has RCMP traffic members focused on
taking dealers, their drugs, money and guns off the roads.

"Members of the traffic units are not only focused on harm reduction
and saving lives," said Insp. Randy Kolibaba, head of traffic
services for the province's Southeast District.

"If these drugs weren't interdicted, they would end up in our
schools, on our streets and fuelling gang violence and other related crimes.

"Combatting organized crime is a responsibility we take very seriously."

Last year, traffic officers in the Southern Interior seized $19.5
million in cash and drugs in 787 traffic stops, more than double the
number of stops as the year before.

That included $3.1 million in cash, 11,000 marijuana plants - the
equivalent of 2.8 million joints - 200,000 ecstasy tablets, 500
kilograms of packaged marijuana and 50,000 street doses of cocaine.

Traffic police also confiscated 37 illegal guns, including an Uzi
machine gun and assault rifles.

"That's directly linked to organized crime," said Kolibaba.

"Traffic members are exposed to more elements of organized crime than
any other discipline in the RCMP."

The Southeast District traffic units have 126 members and three dogs
trained to sniff out drugs. The sniffer champion is Jack, a
nine-year-old black lab that has been responsible for the seizure of
up to $40 million in drugs.

"We partner with our general duty detachments, drug sections,
integrated border enforcement as well as the integrated proceeds of
crime unit," said Kolibaba. "All of these partnerships help fuel the
battle against organized crime."

He said that whenever a vehicle is pulled over, it's checked for
being stolen and the driver is checked for any outstanding warrants.

He said he would not get into specific "intelligence" techniques, but
traffic cops are trained to look for elements of criminology whenever
they pull a driver over.

He said some dumb traffickers have had a load of drugs seized because
they were smoking some of it when they were pulled over, giving the
officer cause to search.

If police have evidence of a crime, they can search on the spot. If
they are suspicious, they will seize the vehicle and get a search warrant.

Kolibaba said criminals are using commercial vehicles to move
contraband more often.

Simple possession carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Trafficking and production can bring life sentences, although those
maximums have likely never happened.

"There's so much greed involved, and it fuels so much crime," said Kolibaba.

"We're not going to relent on our efforts. We encourage our members
not to just look at the ticket but to look for elements of criminology."