ALERT-RCMP drug investigation results in dozens of charges
Ten people — including a member of the Hells Angels and two members of a support club — are facing close to four dozen charges after being arrested for their alleged role within a major cocaine distribution network across northern Alberta.
Police made the arrests in late July in what was the culmination of a year-long joint investigation between Alberta Law Enforcement Teams’ (ALERT) outlaw motorcycle gang enforcement unit and the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime team.
Five kilograms of cocaine, a half-kilogram of the buffing agent phenacetin, cannabis resin, and a handgun were seized along with multiple vehicles and motorcycles and $13,000 in cash deemed proceeds of crime.
Police say the drug network reached Edmonton, Spruce Grove, Cold Lake, Whitecourt, and Grande Prairie.
“While ALERT is thankful to get five kilograms of cocaine off the street, the true success of this investigation is the complete disruption of this network’s reach and the tentacles it had spread into so many communities across this province,” ALERT boss Supt. Chad Coles said at a Thursday news conference. “During the course of this investigation this group demonstrated the capacity to move wholesale quantities of cocaine on a regular basis. The trickle-down impact of the drug trade is associated with acts of violence, property crimes, addictions and health-care costs.”
Of even more significance for police is the fact they, for the first time ever in Alberta, laid their first instructing a criminal organization charge against a current member of the Hells Angels.
Coles said that William McCabe, 47, a member of the Hells Angels’ Westridge chapter was the “primary facilitator” of the cocaine distribution network.
If found guilty McCabe could face life in prison.
The investigation, dubbed Project Entry, also led to the arrest of Shane Daly and Pascal Jacques, both members of the Dirty Few Lakeland chapter, which police say is a known Hells Angels support club.
Support clubs are used to carry out the lower-level, dirty work for the benefit of the Hells Angels, Coles said.
Daly and Jacques are charged with participation in activities of a criminal organization, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, and instructing commission of offence for a criminal organization in cocaine trafficking.
Also arrested alongside McCabe, Daly and Jacques are Joseph Collicutt, 32, of Grande Prairie, Theresa Acker, 42, of Spruce Grove, Anton Petrowitz, 36, of Calgary, Clinton Thomas, 33, of Parkland County, Nicholas Stovell, 38, of Cold Lake, Nicholas Delibasic, 46, of Cold Lake and Larissa Ausmus, 31, of Spruce Grove.
Members of the group, who Coles said “fulfilled various roles in the network including transportation, supply and all the way down to street-level drug deals,” are also facing other drug, firearm and property-related offences.
Project Entry began in March 2017 after information was received about the role of outlaw bikers in drug trafficking.
RCMP Chief Supt. Ian Lawson said that outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) like the Hells Angels have “significantly expanded their criminal influence” in Alberta and Canada over the past five years.
“When we look at the impact on our communities fuelled by OMGs, we see the regular use of violence, illicit drug trafficking, fraud money laundering and the sex trade,” he said.
“These are just some of the many illegal activities that ruin lives and kills Canadians every day.”