Shuttered drug house ‘one of the worst we’ve seen’: police
The floor was littered with hundreds of used drug needles. A blood stain on the wall was being used as a macabre dart board, with the used needles as darts.
And the home had been basically trashed before Alberta Sheriffs and Lethbridge police entered and sealed a suspected drug house on Wednesday. Responding to ongoing complaints from neighbours, they shuttered the northside home for 90 days.
“It’s one of the worst we’ve seen,” said Insp. Mike Letourneau of the Alberta Sheriffs’ special Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit.
“You couldn’t walk without stepping on used needles.”
Armed with a court-issued Community Safety Order, the officers ordered the building vacated. Work crews changed the locks, boarded the windows and erected a security fence around the property at 235 15 St. N.
City police first responded to neighbours’ concerns last summer, reported Const. Ryan Darroch. Alberta Sheriffs investigators confirmed drug activity and then partnered with Lethbridge police to address the issues. In August, city police executed a search warrant at the property, seizing drugs and weapons.
Then a warning letter was sent to the owner, who does not live at the property. But drug activity at the property continued, police say, so investigators began gathering more evidence to support a Community Safety Order application in court.
Police made repeated visits to the home over the following months, Darroch said, laying charges for a number of drug-related charges against people found inside, and executing a total of 44 outstanding arrest warrants.
Darroch described the occupants as “repeat offenders, non-stop criminals who are being released from custody and committing crimes within days and/or hours.”
Many of those crimes, he said, were committed near the residence. And there continued to be “a massive amount of traffic,” to and from the home.
“That kind of behaviour has a lasting impact on the neighbourhood.”
Letourneau said investigation began when eight neighbours contacted police, concerned about the steady flow of traffic to the home. When officials contacted its owners, he said, it was determined that only their son was supposed to be living in the home.
“There were so many people in this property, we’re not even sure who was living there.”
As to the son, “Clearly, he lost control of it.”
The homeowners consented to the vacate order, Letourneau said. They have “a collaborative interest in trying to resolve the issues at this property.”
The vacate order is aimed at breaking a cycle of criminal activity at the property, officials say. The Community Safety Order remains in effect for one year, giving officials the authority to monitor the property and enforce conditions until next Feb. 5.