DRUG-DRIVEN CRIMES ON THE RISE: NOBLE

Cocaine has become a driving force of armed robberies and other serious
crimes in the city.

Grande Prairie RCMP say it's the drug of choice in town and undercover
police officers have no problem buying it. Sgt. Ray Noble said police know
serious crimes are directly linked to the drug subculture.

"The runaway problem right now is cocaine and that is the one that we are
most able to associate to other offences in terms of armed robberies and
property offences," he said. "As we investigate major criminal events in
Grande Prairie ... and I can't think of one since I came here in August of
1997, that wasn't associated to some extent with the drug subculture or drug
trade."

Noble spoke to the city's protective services committee Tuesday about the
prevalence of cocaine in the city and how it fuels more troubles. He told
them another police officer will be added to the one-man drug unit in
October.

The constable currently investigating the drug trade in the city is being
run off his feet according to Noble.

"We've been able to gather significantly more intelligence on the drug trade
in Grande Prairie... who's involved, the extent of the drug trade and reach
the point where that individual (drug investigator) is almost overwhelmed
with work," Noble said. "It's time to provide more resources to deal with
the information we're receiving."

Other officers from out of town have conducted sting operations a couple
days at a time. Noble said each Mountie is able to make an average of four
or five coke purchases a day from dealers.

"What they did find was cocaine is readily available in Grande Prairie, very
easy to buy at the street level," he said, adding police have found coke
users as young as 13 and traffickers as young as 15.

In June, a drug sweep resulted in the arrest of 27 people.

"The numbers have actually gone up to 52 people charged with just over 70
offences," Noble said. "Drug enforcement and education are going to have to
remain a very high priority because it seems to affect the numbers in every
other category of crime we dealt with."

Noble highlighted some of the second-quarter statistics, including five
armed robberies. Last year during the same time, none were reported.

The weapon of choice was a knife and on one occasion, a baseball bat was
also used.

"The interesting thing was we had two liquor store robberies that were
committed by a female offender," Noble said, pointing out that all of the
offences have been solved.

Nearly all of the businesses targeted were liquor stores, with the exception
of an all-night adult video store.

"Those are the outlets when we're planning our crime-prevention programs
that we're going to have to concentrate on," Noble said. "I am certainly
seeing a lot more potential for violence. However, with respect to armed
robbery statistics, we're always dealing with very small numbers and so a
change of two or three armed robberies in a course of a year is a very
significant percentage increase."