MELTING POT SOUGHT FOR FIREARMS, DRUGS

Wanted: an industrial-sized drum of fiery hot molten metal to destroy a
steady stream of guns and drugs like AK-47 assault rifles, Israeli army
Desert Eagles, 50 pounds of marijuana, bags of cocaine and pills.

For more than 30 years, the Windsor Police Service and other police
departments in Southwestern Ontario have relied on the Ford foundry's
sizzling vats of liquid metal to destroy confiscated firearms and
drugs. It was an effortless procedure whereby police and a Ford plant
supervisor would monitor each item as it was swallowed into the
blazing liquid. Police could be certain that the illegal goods were
destroyed.

But now that the foundry is closed, it has not only hurt Windsor's
automotive sector but Windsor police as well. Police are scouting for
a location to trash a landslide of seized goods. It's a tricky task,
said Windsor police Insp. Dave Rossell, because few other incineration
methods guarantee that the items cannot be recovered by scavengers
hunting for gun parts and drug plants. "The foundry was so convenient,
really a godsend. Stuff was gone within a matter of minutes. Now with
any other way, we can't take a chance this stuff might get into the
wrong hands," said Rossell.

Police have considered bringing the contraband to incinerators at
Hotel-Dieu Grace and Windsor Regional hospitals but the units are too
small.

"I don't have an exact count on what we have, but I know that it
doesn't take long to accumulate stuff," said Rossell, who added that
this year police destroyed more than 200 firearms before the foundry
closed its doors.

While police are researching local options for incineration, they are
also entertaining thoughts of outsourcing the job.

"We are trying to figure something out in the area so we don't have to
travel down the 401; we might have to go to a Health Canada site," he
said.

The guns and drugs in the police property room are often seized by
cops in crime investigations, while in other instances they've been
turned in by a family member.

"It's a matter of finding an old shotgun that belonged to grandpa and
their niece, son or daughter turn it in for destruction," he said.

Rossell said citizens who stumble upon a weapon on their property or
elsewhere, are encouraged to turn it in at police headquarters where
it can be safely destroyed.

An old shotgun would not be the most unusual item in the property
room. Rows upon rows of shelves house such oddities like a $15,000
motorized wheelchair, a painting of the doomed freighter Edmund
Fitzgerald, medieval swords, traffic signs, bumpers and hundreds of
dollars of Canadian Tire money.

The police hold seasonal public auctions where bidders can purchase
many seized goods in the property room like tools, housewares and
entertainment equipment. The next auction is set for the fall, Rossell
said.