RCMP TOOK SERIOUS RUN AT DRUG TRADE IN '08

HAMPTON - Police are not naive enough to think they halted the drug
trade in Kings County, but it did take a significant hit last year,
said Sgt. Steve Gourdeau from the RCMP's District 3 headquarters. From
his office the plain-clothes unit works, investigating and handling
tips coming in on illegal activity from Sussex to Grand
Bay-Westfield.

In 2008, Gourdeau said, members caught some big dealers. Among them,
second-time offender George Moore, the beloved butcher of Apohaqui,
who was dealing in major drugs, including expensive and highly
addictive cocaine. He was back selling from his friendly meat shop
while he was still on parole on similar offences, and is now serving
six years in prison.

Arden Gregg, who will have his day in court during his drug trial on
Feb. 13, also consumed police manpower in 2008. He faces charges for
possession of what police called a "candy store" of illicit drugs,
including cocaine, from his Marrtown home.

Smaller dealers like 21-year-old Corey Cunningham of Apohaqui, fairly
new to the business of dealing coke, was sent to prison for two years
last week.

And the courts are still sentencing some of the batch of dealers
arrested last year for trafficking in a variety of other drugs - the
most popular marijuana, OxyContin and hashish. Just this week
Bloomfield senior Marcel Morrissette was sentenced to house arrest
after what police found during a bust on his home last March.

Plain-clothes officers were relentless, Gourdeau pointed out, with
dealers of all sizes with their plethora of addictive offerings busted
and convicted. Often in the same raids came guns and illegal cigarettes.

"We did catch more, and bigger ones, last year. I think we caught
nearly every one in the Sussex area," he said.

"If you start selling coke, people start complaining and someone's
going to come for you."

Gourdeau said in a Sussex bust last year, as a convict was brought out
of the home he dealt drugs in, neighbours gathered on the sidewalk and
cheered as police were making their seizures.

"People just don't want these people around, it attracts a certain
type of crime," Gourdeau explained, saying 85 per cent of crime,
including mischief, break and enters and violent assaults are
"directly linked to drugs."

He cannot say if there is an elevation in drug use or just more
enforcement. Unlike the measurable property crimes, for example, the
true prevalence of drugs in a community is hard to determine, he added.

There has been an increase in drug prosecutions, Gourdeau explained,
but in 2008 there was also an emphasis put on catching the guys
selling the dope.

"It was a priority for our district," Gourdeau said.

The annual performance plan is drafted each year in consultation with
municipalities and local service districts the three detachments in
the district serve.

"Last year drugs were named repeatedly as our number-one priority so
we said 'let's go at it.' And we did," he explained.

Gourdeau has no doubt when one drug dealer goes down another one fills
in to meet the demand of the lucrative business.

"You're not going to dry up that kind of activity. There is always
someone else out there to take over," he said.

While drug crime will always be on the police radar, Gourdeau said the
RCMP in the district has been given a new set of priorities for this
year reflecting recent problems. The mandate includes reducing the
incidents of public nuisance at local businesses, slashing the number
of property crimes/thefts from vehicles, improving enforcement of laws
for off-road vehicles and snowmobiles, and contributing to employee
skill development with more specialized training initiatives.