DRUG TRADE LINKED TO DEATH IN HAY RIVER, LOCALS SAY

HAY RIVER, NWT - It was a big bust by any standards, but seven
kilograms of cocaine found on a midweek afternoon in a bar shocked
even veteran Yellowknife drug cops.

"We weren't prepared to find that much at once," recalls RCMP Sergeant
Larry O'Brien, who in 2005 led the largest drug bust in territorial
history. "We didn't think there would be that much on hand in
Yellowknife.

"Guys were calling me and saying, 'You've gotta come down and see
this.' "

That spectacular haul - the result of an 18-month investigation that
has just finished working through Northwest Territories courts - has
important lessons for residents of Hay River, who were expected to
debate the role drugs played in the Oct. 6 murder of RCMP Constable
Chris Worden at a meeting last night.

"It's a bigger problem than we recognized at the time," said Sgt.
O'Brien.

Many Hay River residents are convinced that Constable Worden's death
is related to the pipeline of drugs flowing north from Alberta and
British Columbia into the NWT. The shooting happened near a home
rumoured to be an active drug house.

Anglican minister Vivian Smith said the issue was sure to come up
during a town meeting planned for last night to discuss the problem
and what the town should do about it.

"Most certainly," said Ms. Smith, who planned to attend the meeting as
part of a five-member committee of local clergy. "There's a lot of
concern about drugs and alcohol."

But that'll be a tough task, said Sgt. O'Brien, who led Operation
Gunship, the 18-month investigation that, in addition to the cocaine,
resulted in the seizure of $100,000 cash, weapons and the arrest of 25
people - the last of whom was sentenced in mid-September to five years
in jail.

Some drugs come north in the mail. The rest comes by planes, trains
and automobiles.

"It gets up here every which way," Sgt. O'Brien said. "When I worked
in Hay River, we knew that packages were thrown on the train cars and
were picked off by locals in Hay River."

Last spring, officers stopped nearly every vehicle coming north on the
two highways that connect the NWT with Alberta and B.C., the only land
routes into the territory.

"They stopped everything coming across the border," said Sgt. O'Brien.
"They shut down everything on the highway and they did quite well."

A highway patrol unit based in Hay River was formed a few years ago,
partly to combat drugs heading north from Alberta. Officers also stop
vehicles at the ferry across the Mackenzie River, through which all
Yellowknife-bound vehicles must pass.

Still, the drugs keep coming.

The recent Operation Gargoyle, aimed at low-level street dealers,
resulted in 35 arrests across the territory, from Hay River to Inuvik.
And while drug arrest statistics have cooled off in the last couple
years, the NWT still has the highest rate in the country - 769
incidents per 100,000 compared to 295 in Canada as a whole in 2006.

Sgt. O'Brien said he believes the drug problem in the North isn't any
different than that of myriad other small communities elsewhere in
Canada.

"Being worse than we thought doesn't make it worse than anywhere
else," he said.

Yellowknife, for example, doesn't have the problems with crystal meth
faced by some towns in Alberta, Sgt. O'Brien said - although the
demand for cocaine and crack remains "pretty strong."

He admits, though, that the fight is continuing.

"You're never out of work in the drug section."

Ms. Smith said yesterday's two-hour meeting was just one step toward
trying to accomplish that. As well, she said, it was to a chance for
the community to get together, talk, and begin to move forward after
the tragedy.

"We're praying for healing in the town," she said.

"Let's clean it up. Let's take back our town. That's our prayer."