THE ANATOMY OF A BUST

"It Affects Everyone In The Communities"

MONTREAL - The war against drug trafficking in the North is scoring some
points, judging from the heaps of seized drugs on show at a Montreal press
conference last week.

The spoils were displayed for all to see: hundreds of tiny one-gram,
zip-lock bags filled with marijuana, carefully wrapped larger packages of
fresh weed, crisp cash, cell phones, pagers, red and white Canada Post
express envelopes, two handguns and a rifle.

"Look at the progress we've made," said Stephen Covey from the RCMP, as he
addressed journalists from a table backed by flags from Canada, Quebec and
Nunavut.

On May 31, the Aboriginal Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit broke,
in a series of early morning raids, a drug pipeline from Montreal to
Nunavik and Nunavut that functioned for about seven years. The operation
resulted in 325 charges against more than 40 people.

This is how police say the mail-order drug delivery scheme worked: every
week, pushers in the North called a special pager number in Montreal. They
received a return phone call from "Mike," a drug dealer in Montreal,
calling from a cellular phone. Then they placed their weekly order.

The supplier then packaged up individual gram-bags of pot, disguising the
odor of the packages with pepper. Small quantities of cocaine were often
included in the packages, as rewards for local pushers. Then, the suppliers
mailed the packages, which each contained from 100 to 300 grams.

All of the packages contained quantities under 500 grams; Canada Post
employees aren't allowed to open packages that size.

Every week, local pushers sent their cash back south by cheque and money
order. Sometimes they found a local courier who would carry down the money,
taped on to their bodies or stuffed into boxes.

The money, $125,000 to $250,000 a week, allowed the alleged kingpin of the
operation, Marcello "Mike" Ruggiero, 39, and his buddies to acquire
luxurious mansions and drive around in posh sports cars and SUVs.

When police moved in to arrest Ruggiero, he was found sitting on his living
room couch, unaware that a SWAT team was about to disturb his early morning
coffee.

In addition to drugs taken in 14 raids around Montreal, police also found
42 pot plants in a greenhouse as well as cash, money orders and cheques.
Money was still flowing in through the mail after the bust last week. The
total amount seized by police to date adds up to more than $1.4 million.

But the social cost of a drug ring like this is much, much higher, says
Nunavik's health and social services director, Jeannie May.

"It affects everyone in the communities," she told the packed press
conference last week. "We can link a lot of social problems to substance
abuse."

These social problems include violence, suicide and even death.

Police confirmed that earlier this year, a young boy froze to death in
Kangirsuk when he went out in a blizzard to fetch drugs for his mother.

The RCMP and other police forces involved in "Crystal," the joint operation
to knock down Ruggiero's ring, warn that the war against drug trafficking
in Quebec's aboriginal communities is just beginning.

This means organized crime may expect similar police operations in the future.

At the same time, members of the Aboriginal Combined Forces Special
Enforcement Unit want to get a reassuring message out to aboriginal
communities: they say this unit is determined to make aboriginal
communities "safer and more secure" by restoring the social peace -
something police in Quebec have to date failed at in southern aboriginal
communities, in places like the troubled Mohawk reserve of Kanesatake.

For members of the KRPF and Surete du Quebec provincial police force who
work in Nunavik, the success of the recent police operation became a moment
of personal triumph, following a painstaking investigation into the web of
drug connections.

However, the network allegedly headed by Ruggiero accounts for only a very
small portion of the estimated $60 million of drug sales every year in
Nunavik and Nunavut.

"It tells you there are lots of guys like Ruggiero selling drugs in the
North," says KRPF chief Brian Jones.

Jones admits breaking Ruggiero's operation is like chipping away a small
piece of ice from a large iceberg, but he says the new collaboration
between Quebec, aboriginal police and Nunavut means drug traffickers will
start feeling the heat and fall in the next round of arrests.