Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - An undercover operation by the RCMP targeting street level drugs that began last December concluded Saturday with the arrest of 30 people in Yellowknife, Hay River and Inuvik.

The operation, nicknamed Project Gargoyle and headed by Cpl. Geoff Greenwood of the RCMP drug unit in Yellowknife, resulted in 45 charges laid or pending. The final stages of the bust involved 34 police officers, including some from Alberta, the police dog and undercover agents.

Complete information on the charges, the amount of drugs seized and the identities of those arrested is still being compiled, said Sgt. Larry O'Brien, Monday.

"These are the street dealers. These are the bottom-level dealers and traffickers who are out on the street. The entire intention of this project was to surface these guys.

"What happens is these guys get a little brazen and get out in the street and don't hide too much, so we have to throw these little low-level projects at them to sort of keep them honest."

In Yellowknife, a total of 12 people were charged for offenses including cocaine trafficking.

"What we gain from this is we identify the low-level dealers. We certainly put a cramp in their style by arresting them and charging them. We also put them on the back foot because they don't know that who they're selling to is a policeman, said O'Brien.

"The other thing it does is provides us intelligence, which will then lead up to the next level and so on."

O'Brien added the bust could also deter anyone looking to sell drugs.

"Anyone else who's interested in getting involved will now have their senses on alert, because they don't know if we're around. They don't know who they're selling to."

O'Brien said he did not know whether those arrested in Yellowknife worked together or independently of each other.

In Hay River, 12 individuals were arrested. The charges including trafficking and possession of marijuana, and trafficking cocaine.

"I believe in Hay River (the RCMP) bought some morphine," which "used to be pretty common in Yellowknife," said O'Brien. "Although I haven't heard of it in a few years."

Six people in Inuvik were also arrested, the charges including marijuana trafficking and bootlegging.

O'Brien said Project Gargoyle does not compare to Project Gunship, a cocaine sweep in October 2005 that resulted in charges against 11 people accused of being behind major drug ring.

"Project Gunship was a much larger project. It involved a higher level of targets."