RCMP SEEKING MORE PUBLIC HELP TO DEAL WITH BOOMING DRUG TRADE

With a growing drug problem in Grande Prairie, police will be turning
to the public more for help in solving - and reporting - drug cases,
a local Mounties says.

Cpl. John Wilson said that with the changing landscape of the drug
trade in Grande Prairie over the last 10 years, the RCMP see
information from the public as one of their most valuable resources.

"The biggest resource out there for the police to combat the drug
problem, not only in Grande Prairie but in any community, is the
people within the community ... people providing the information,"
said Wilson, head of Grande Prairie RCMP's drug crimes unit.

A member of the local detachment since the late 1990s, Wilson said
the drug problem here is as bad as he's ever seen it.

"This is the most we have seen ... but this is the most people I've
seen in Grande Prairie too," he said. "Do I think the drug problem is
greater than it was 10 years ago? I do."

Wilson said using public information isn't something new and the RCMP
are always looking for more tips, which will hopefully lead to more
arrests and drug seizures.

"The public knows a lot more information than what is being shared
with us so we're looking for them to step up to the plate and assist
with combatting the drug problem," he said.

Wilson said he would like Grande Prairie residents and visitors to
take a proactive approach to help decrease the drug trade.

"If they see suspicious activity like people coming to a vehicle
parked in a lot some place and people coming up and exchanging money
and receiving packages - rather then turn their head we would ask
that they call it in."

Wilson said the first step once police receive a call, even an
anonymous one, is to try and confirm it.

He used the example of a caller reporting someone who is coming to
the city with a large amount of drugs in their possession.

"Sometimes it is very successful, we've taken a lot of drugs off the
street by calls like that. There's other calls that don't bear any
fruit, we go and we just can't seem to corroborate it."

Wilson said it's not only the amount of drugs used and distributed
the RCMP has to deal with, but also the variety of drugs produced.

Relatively new drugs like methamphetamines and new methods of use
such as cocaine being smoked rather than just snorted, have come into
being in the last 10 years.

Along with these changes there has also been changes with how drug
dealers do business in Grande Prairie.

"It appears there are more groups that are coming to Grande Prairie.," he said.

DRUG TRADE BECOMING MOBILE

Wilson said these groups include organized crime groups and added the
mobile nature of drug trade makes it harder to track.

"It used to be that people were selling from their house but now it
seems that that's more infrequent. What I've seen is that groups now
come in and do their operations from hotel rooms."

This method is referred to by the RCMP as a "dial-a-dope operation,"
where people make calls to cellphones and in a group show up, make a
meet, sell their drugs and then leave.

RCMP have had to tailor their drug investigations to adapt to these changes.

"It makes it a little more difficult because you're not dealing with
one house that will be staying there for an extended period of time,
you're dealing with people who are coming into Grande Prairie for the
weekend with their cocaine, run around, sell their dope and away they go."

Wilson said members of the public sometimes have the most valuable knowledge.

"There's a lot of dealers out there and there's people that know that
they deal."

He said the more eyes and ears on the street the police have, the
better chance they have of getting rid of the dealers.