Guy Quenneville and Dez Loreen
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 28, 2007

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

The operation, nicknamed Project Gargoyle 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 RCMP Sgt. Larry O'Brien in Yellowknife 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."

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

"I'd like to think the busts had some impact on the situation in Inuvik," said Inuvik detachment commander Staff Sgt. Sid Gray. "It shows the citizens that we are trying to deal with the problems in the community. I think this will help the community and affect it in a positive way."

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

"Cocaine was seized," said O'Brien.

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

In Hay River, 12 individuals were arrested. The charges including trafficking and possession of marijuana, and trafficking cocaine. In Hay River, police were able to buy illegal morphine.