MOUNTIE STREET TEAM 'BUSTING' AT SEAMS

Drug busting Red Deer Mounties are moving so fast they are now catching
dealers cooking their stash while storming crack houses.

Last Thursday, the city detachment's vaunted Street Team made their third
successful raid on crack houses in a week, and in the process netted $3,000
worth of cocaine, a cache of stolen property and arrested three people at
15 Odell Green in Oriole Park. One of those arrested was caught cooking crack.

"I know they are making a difference, and yes I am happy with what they are
doing," said Supt. Jim Steele.

"The drug stats are up significantly and that is due to the work these guys
are doing."

In the past three months, the six-member Street Team has raided up to a
dozen crack houses in the city - seizing a kilo of cocaine, a dozen illegal
firearms and recovering almost $200,000 in stolen property. The busts have
been occurring in every part of the city.

Drug offences in Red Deer have increased by 110 per cent this year. There
were 503 drug offences under investigation by the end of June compared to
239 during the same period in 2003. Senior RCMP officials say those
statistics are a reflection of increased police attention to the drug trade
in the city.

Cpl. Steve Cormack, who heads the Street Team, said methamphetamine- along
with cocaine - is the number one illegal drug of choice in the city,
especially with younger people.

"Meth is so highly, highly addictive and it is so cheap and plentiful, and
available. Over 90 per cent of people who have their first hit are
addicted," said Cormack. "The target audience for meth is a lot younger. We
are seeing early to pre-teen people being targeted."

Cormack said the Red Deer public should get used to the busts because there
are plenty more coming in the near future.

"We are working our butts off. We are having a lot of success and it is
contagious. Everybody is catching the fever and helping out," said Cormack.

Cormack attributes the team's recent success to the increased resources the
city detachment has allotted over the past 18 months. The team once had
three members but has been doubled in size.

He added his team is working closely with front-line uniformed officers and
detectives from the property crimes section.

"Every time we do a hit we take them (property crime detectives) with us,"
said Cormack.

As well, the Street Team has cultivated a reliable and growing network of
informants who are supplying detectives with valuable information on crack
houses and criminals. The team has also been aided by a growing number of
Crime Stoppers tips.

One reason for the growing number of informants, who are close to the drug
subculture, is that members of the Street Team do not judge them as human
beings, said Cormack.

"Once they are in and addicted we understand. They are not in that
lifestyle because they want to be. They are in there because their body is
saying, 'I need that hit," said Cormack."

"I have personally made arrangements for people to go appointments for
addiction counsellors to try to straighten them out."

Insp. Peter Calvert, the city detachment's head of operations, also credits
the recent success with a change in philosophy in target groups over the
past 18 months.

Instead of focusing on time intensive investigations with drug trade king
pins, the Street Team concept, which works closely with property crime
detectives, has been able to quickly nab "middle men".

"It has shown an increase in the amount of property and weapons recovered
from street and middle level dealers," said Calvert.

"We want to send a message out that this is not a community that is going
to accept this kind of activity, and police resources will be focused to do
what we can to limit it as much as we can."