INNISFAIL - Following a month-long proactive policing project local Mounties have made a series of significant property crime and drug trafficking busts.
"We are putting a lot of effort into decreasing crime," said Innisfail RCMP Sgt. Lori Eiler when asked if local Mounties are stepping up their efforts to combat property and drug crimes. She said the local detachment has "always" done proactive work. "This is nothing that is new. It's just the latest project we have done."
The series of significant busts began on May 15 when the detachment's General Investigation Section (GIS) located a stolen vehicle in Innisfail.
Eiler said surveillance was conducted on the vehicle until it was parked and the driver arrested on foot at the Innisfail Fas Gas.
She said the vehicle, a 2017 limited edition Ford Explorer valued at more than $60,000, was stolen out of Calgary and recovered. A quantity of methamphetamine was also seized.
Eiler said a 42-year-old Central Alberta man was charged and will appear in Red Deer provincial court in July.
On June 5 in Innisfail, GIS located a stolen licence plate on a vehicle. Eiler said surveillance was conducted, which led to the recovery of a stolen licence plate and boat trailer stolen out of Penhold in 2018. During the investigation, a 36-year-old Calgary man with numerous arrest warrants was apprehended and held for a bail hearing.
Two days later on June 7 GIS and other local detachment members executed a search warrant at an Innisfail residence, said Eiler.
She said there was evidence of cocaine trafficking and an investigation is ongoing. Two Central Alberta men with outstanding arrest warrants on unrelated matters were also apprehended during the investigation.
She said that while the current proactive policing project has concluded the detachment will continue with enforcement and proactive policing in Innisfail over the summer months.
Eiler is requesting citizens with any information on drug trafficking and property crime to contact Innisfail GIS at 403-227-8514.
"We really want people to report suspicious and drug activity that they think may be drug related," she said, adding drug offences are "always" connected to property crime. "In the vast majority of cases they are related. They are just not from Innisfail or Red Deer. We have a very transient and fluid criminal population. It affects all of Central Alberta."
