MAILING DOPE DIDN'T WORK

Three people are in custody after postal staff and police stopped the
shipment of a large package of marijuana in the mail.

The RCMP said that within the last couple of weeks, Canada Post
employees became suspicious of a package in the mail that was believed
to contain drugs.

The police were then contacted and it was discovered the package
contained about 14 kilograms of marijuana. At that time, members of
the Regina Integrated Drug Unit -- made up of members of both the RCMP
and the Regina Police Service -- began an investigation in conjunction
with Canada Post Security Investigation Services.

That investigation led to a series of drug searches on Sunday at
several Regina locations, including residences on the 200 block of
College Avenue East, the 2100 block of 15th Avenue and a location on
McDougall Road.

During the searches, police located and seized two separate large
amounts of cash that are expected to add up to about $20,000. Two
vehicles were also seized as potential offence-related property.

The searches also led to the arrest of two men, aged 36 and 27, and a
38-year-old woman. All three are from Regina.

The trio is facing charges of possessing marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking, trafficking in marijuana, possession of crime proceeds,
and conspiracy.

Their identities will be released once they make their first court
appearances this morning.

They will remain in custody in the meantime.

RCMP Sgt. Brian Jones said this isn't the type of crime police see
frequently.

"It's not common and certainly 31 pounds is a robust package," he
said. "However ... we don't have access to the Canada Post system
because of the privacy and the security and the sanctity, if you will,
of mail once it's posted. So how much of it is going on, we don't
know. It's happened before but I'm certainly not aware of 31 pounds of
it being shipped recently."