DRUG STING NABS EIGHT AT FOLK FEST

Dealers Selling LSD, Chocolate-Coated Mushrooms

OAKBANK -- RCMP plainclothes officers danced to a different tune when they
shut down an apparently freewheeling drug-dealing enterprise at last
weekend's Winnipeg Folk Festival -- the first sting of its kind in the
festival's 29-year history.

The three-day operation, which took down eight dealers in the festival
campground, netted police 149 hits of LSD, 47 ecstasy pills, 1.5 grams of
powdered cocaine, 166.5 grams of magic mushrooms (most dipped in chocolate
and wrapped up in candy foil packets), 332 grams of marijuana and four
grams of hash.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Steve Saunders said the police sting wasn't so much
about confiscating the drugs -- the street value of the drug haul is about
$8,000 -- but making the popular festival safe for everyone.

Two women and six men face a total of 31 charges under the Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act, including trafficking and possession for the purpose of
trafficking.

One of the accused is from Vancouver and one is from Whistler, B.C. The
rest are Manitobans -- five from Winnipeg and one from Winkler. Their names
have not been released.

Festival general manager Trudy Schroeder said she and other organizers were
"appalled" when RCMP informed them Sunday of the charges and what they had
seized from the campground, about a five-minute walk from the festival
site. "Our job is running a world-class festival," Schroeder said, as she
looked at a tableful of narcotics and drug paraphernalia at the RCMP's
Oakbank detachment.

"Their job is upholding the laws of the land. We strongly support them
doing that.

"We are absolutely against having this kind of thing around our festival.
People who sell this kind of thing are not welcome."

Police say they decided to infiltrate the campground after they and parks
staff received several complaints about drug trafficking last year.

"It was not hard to find," said one of the officers involved, adding
dealers would openly advertise what they were selling.

"People were yelling out thing like, 'Anyone need anything tonight?'"
Police say they weren't surprised by what they found; just the flagrant
openness of how drugs were being packaged and sold for individual use. For
example, tiny one-gram packs of marijuana were being sold for $10 and
one-gram hits of Psilocybin mushrooms were being sold out of coolers, as
they had been dipped in chocolate and the dealers didn't want them to melt
in the weekend's heat. They also had portable scales to weigh and package
drugs and two-way radios, signs they came prepared to do brisk business.

RCMP also say many of the people in the campground had just come out for
the drugs -- they hadn't heard a note of music at the festival site. The
campground, on the east side of the park, has a reputation as being the
place to party during the four-day event.

Police also say people in the campground were peaceful and there were no
instances of violence. As well, no drug charges were laid at the festival
and workshop grounds.

Saunders said news of the drug charges shouldn't tarnish the Winnipeg Folk
Festival, which prides itself on being a well-run family event.

"They had 40,000 people this year and we charged eight people," he said.

Schroeder added a new policy requiring campers to buy a four-day pass --
the one-day pass was dropped -- was intended to get rid of people who just
wanted to party.

"Our intention is that the campground is safe and enjoyable for people who
love music and the outdoors," she said.