Fort Good Hope RCMP seize liquor
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Fort Good Hope (Dec 22/00) - Bootlegging is big business.
Multiply the regular cost of Baccardi 151-proof rum by isolation and community alcohol restrictions and a bootlegger can earn upwards of $200, said Const. Guy Lagimodiere.
In Fort Good Hope, however, community concern over drinking is cutting into the profits.
In the past week, the detachment was flooded with calls from tipsters who led police to more than 70 bottles of contraband booze and an alcohol source of last resort -- hairspray.
"People are just sick of booze and bootlegging in the community," Lagimodiere explained. "It has something to do with the fatality and now people are saying enough is enough and don't want anything bad to happen over Christmas."
Three young men were killed in a snowmobile crash following a party on Oct. 22.
Economics play a large role in the bootlegging business there since there's a limit on how much alcohol people can bring in. Everyone over the age of 19 is allowed only one "repack," which can include a 40-ounce bottle of liquor, two bottles of wine and a case of beer for example, each week.
Some bootleggers pay to other people's names to buy alcohol.
Checking the mail
With no winter road open yet, people are not able to get to Norman Wells and its liquor store.
"We've been hitting the airport and did a search of a Canada Post package and found 10 bottles of 151," Lagimodiere said.
Baccardi 151 is 75 per cent alcohol.
"It's the same price and double the punch," he said. "It just goes to show you what liquor means to a lot of people. We're not doing this to stop the average citizen from bringing a repack in, it's people who bring in four or five who beat their wives or don't feed their kids."
A cocktail of last resort is hairspray, when other alcohol is hard to come by.
Residents have even phoned in tips on who's who when it comes to trafficking hairspray as well, which can sell for more than $50 per bottle.
"In the last month we've had more calls for hairspray than alcohol," Lagimodiere said.
Although bootleggers can be charged under the Liquor Act, trafficking hairspray is difficult to prove.
Liquor committee
A liquor committee is in the process of being set up in Fort Good Hope because the community wants "bootleggers under a microscope," Lagimodiere said.
People will have to buy a permit from the board, explained Const. Craig Seafoot. "If we report anyone to them who causes problems related to alcohol they would be denied a permit."
Deline has a similar system.
