POLICE SEIZE HEROIN DURING DRUG BUST

For the first time ever, heroin has been part of a police drug bust in
central Newfoundland.

It was found, along with five other drugs, on (redacted), 33,
who has been charged with six counts of possession with the purpose of
trafficking.

"This is significant in that this guy had six different types of drugs
on him and the fact that he had heroin on him, which is very uncommon
for here," said Constable Doug Hewitt with the general investigation
section of the district detachment of the RCMP.

Police in central received information on the morning of Tuesday, Dec.
19 related to the bust. Although Constable Hewitt would not provide
details about the information, he did say police acted on it
immediately. Three officers and the detachment's police dog, Zak,
busted Mr. (redacted) later that afternoon outside his vehicle on High
Street in Grand Falls-Windsor.

At the time, he was found with three grams of heroin, 27 grams of
hashish, 35 grams of psilocybin (magic mushrooms), eight grams of
marijuana, 20 grams of cocaine and 168 doses of LSD (acid), along with
various drug paraphernalia like spoons, pipes and rolling papers.
Police have yet to determine the street value of the drugs.

As part of the arrest, Mr. (redacted) vehicle was seized and police
executed a search warrant on it to check for other drugs.

"Given the circumstances and the amount of drugs he had on his person,
there was reason to believe there may be others in the vehicle," said
Constable Hewitt.

During their search, police found 300 grams of marijuana and 500 grams
of psilocybin.

This marks the second drug bust for the Grand Falls-Windsor District
RCMP in two weeks. A previous bust had been made in Badger on Dec. 8,
during which a substantial amount of cocaine and marijuana had been
seized.

Mr. (redacted) is a native of Grand Falls-Windsor, but has been living in
Aruba in the Caribbean, where he works as a diving instructor.

However, Constable Hewitt could not confirm whether Mr. (redacted) has
transported the drugs to Grand Falls-Windsor from Aruba, saying police
did not yet know if that was the case.

The constable said RCMP is concerned in particular about the small
quantity of heroin that was found.

"It is worrisome because it may be indicative of things to come," said
the constable. "Hopefully it's not something we're going to see in the
future anytime soon. Where this person was from out-of-country,
out-of-province may have been the reason he had it here."