STUDENTS ARRESTED IN DRUG DRAGNET

MONCTON - Undercover police officers posing as high school students have
broken a drug ring in the Moncton area in an investigation that will result
in four students and four adults being charged with drug-related offenses.

RCMP raided schools in Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe on Thursday morning,
and the suspects are accused of trafficking PCP, marijuana and ecstasy.

The investigation is part of a larger probe called "Operation Jingle." The
students were arrested from Mathieu Martin in Dieppe, Moncton High School
and Riverview High.

"We did use an undercover police officer, who acted as a student in the
high schools, whose objective was to try and buy drugs from the students
that were trafficking," says Codiac RCMP drug officer Constable Al Farrah.

Police say the operation doesn't signify a growing drug problems among
students, just better cooperation between RCMP and schools.

Principal Doug Prescott say the undercover sting was just one of a number
of options that have been considered to keep the school safe. "In ongoing
discussions with the RCMP, we've look at a variety of issues from security
cameras to bringing the dogs into the school for seaches to having guests
come in and taking about things like an undercover officer."

Three of the arrested teens were students of Mathieu Martin. The school has
had drug problems in the past, but an undercover police officer was never
considered as a solution.

Vice-principal Robert Leblanc says he supports the idea. "If it means being
able to secure the premises and offer our kids a chance to be in a secure
atmosphere and also being able to do what you have to do in school, which
is learn and behave properly, and if it's going to do that for us, then
evidently we have to be confortable with it."

Police are calling this operation a success. And they're not ruling the use
of more undercover officers in other high schools.

Police also expect to lay drug-related charges against five Moncton area
men accused of trafficking in cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana. The men
were targets of the larger drug investigation, but the arrests are
unrelated to the schools.