Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 15/02) - Eight Yellowknifers and three Inuvik residents were arrested on drug trafficking charges Monday as a result of an RCMP investigation dubbed Project "Getaway."

Who was arrested: Yellowknife residents Douglas Leonard Knutson, 44: two counts of trafficking marijuana Thomas Francis Elliott, 26: one count of trafficking hashish Mary Anne Laboucane, 38: two counts of trafficking cocaine Daisey Alice Posegate, 39: one count trafficking cocaine, one count trafficking Percodan Rickey Raymond Storey, 28: three counts trafficking cocaine Cindy Grace Grandejambe, 30: one count trafficking cocaine Long Hai Huynh, 26: one count trafficking cocaine, once count uttering death threats Dayl Eldon Hein, 34: three counts trafficking cocaine Inuvik residents Lenny George Blake, 29: five counts trafficking cocaine Pat Greenland, 19: five counts trafficking cocaine Justin Wallace Simms, 24: two counts trafficking cocaine RCMP are still looking for: Yellowknife: Stanley Paul Pestano, 21: two counts trafficking cocaine Pierre Eskalon, 18: two counts trafficking cocaine Peter Mario Pagonis, 38: three counts trafficking cocaine Norman Alexander Hache, 21: two counts trafficking cocaine Frederick Douglas McDonald, 53: one count trafficking cocaine Inuvik: Robert Bobby Ross, 34: one count trafficking cocaine

A total of 40 charges have been laid against 18 individuals, most of whom are charged with trafficking cocaine.

Police seized 50 grams of cocaine with an estimated street value of $8,000 in an arrest sweep Monday that involved 15 to 20 officers.

Also confiscated was 340 grams of marijuana, a small amount of hashish and a small quantity of the narcotic prescription drug Percodan.

Sgt. Phil Johnson of the RCMP 'G' Division says the latest round-up is a much smaller scale operation than the Operation Guiness sweep two years ago.

Guiness resulted in 70 arrests in November 2000, 45 of whom were Yellowknifers. Four suspects arrested Monday were also detained as a result of Operation Guiness.

Ten suspects were arrested Monday and one turned himself in Tuesday morning.

Police have issued arrest warrants for six other individuals and are also looking for another person they have yet to fully identify.

Johnson said Monday's arrests in Yellowknife and Inuvik were connected.

"We believe there is a strong link from drugs being transported to Yellowknife and into our other communities, including Inuvik."

The arrests concluded a two-month investigation involving a team of four RCMP officers. He would not comment on whether the arrests involved the use of wiretaps.

"I was asked not to discuss the tactics. It will come out in court. To talk about it might jeopardize the prosecution."

Long Hai Huynh was arrested after an altercation on Melville Drive May 1.

He has been in custody since then and will appear in Justice of the Peace court May 21.

Douglas Leonard Knutson, Mary Anne Laboucane and Rickey Raymond Storey appeared in justice of the peace court Tuesday afternoon. Laboucane will be back in JP court today at 1:30 p.m. for a bail hearing while bail hearings for Knutson and Storey are scheduled for tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Three individuals arrested have been released from custody until their court appearances.

As for putting a glitch in the trafficking of cocaine, Johnson said "people are profiting immensely from selling this stuff" and doubts the Project Getaway arrests will put much of a dent in the market.

"It's going to stop them temporarily, assuming the prosecution is successful, but it won't wipe out drug trafficking in the North," Johnson said.