Seven nabbed as stolen vehicles, drugs and weapons seized in auto theft sweep

A Calgary police crackdown on auto theft over the Labour Day weekend brought in much more than stolen cars.

In three separate covert operations, police arrested seven people, laid 72 charges and seized weapons, body armour, drugs and “multiple stolen vehicles.”

In each of those operations, police targeted known car thieves who had outstanding warrants or were suspected of actively committing crimes.

Resources were pooled between various law enforcement teams to locate suspects, gather evidence and make arrests, police said in a news release.

In one case, a man wanted on warrants was spotted driving a stolen rental vehicle.

Officers followed the man on Monday to a parking lot in the 2100 block of Crowchild Trail where he met with two others. All three were arrested.

A search of the vehicles resulted in the confiscation of two pistols, a rifle, body armour, bear spray, an estimated $4,000 worth of various illegal drugs and $6,000 in cash.

Michael Ghostkeeper, 32, Tracy Suffesick, 33, and Chad Munroe, 40, each face multiple charges.

Between them, they were wanted on 99 separate warrants.

Those arrested in connection with the other police operations include Darcy Shepherd, 54, Trevor Hogan, 31, Kyle Meckler, 32, and Daemond Glenn, 29.

The Calgary Police Service announced a new effort last week to target auto thefts and related crimes by assigning one of its district operations teams to focus solely on those crimes, while aligning all district officers much more closely with a citywide team focused solely on stolen vehicles.