Drug users stealing steak, lobster

‘ They can turn it around really fast for cash’

• Purl o i ned porterhouse and looted lobster are helping feed Calgary’s ravenous drug trade.

Police say they are seeing an increase in the number of shoplifting and food-theft incidents, including cases where thousands of dollars in high- end grocery items are being sold through organized crime rings.

Const. Lara Sampson, who works on organized retail crime cases, said the majority of people behind this kind of large- scale theft are drug users addicted to opiates or other substances.

After making away with over- the counter medications or high-end food items like tenderloins and lobster tails, hitting up to 10 grocery or drugstores in one day, the suspects are then trading those products for drugs or cash.

“With our big opiate crisis that we’re seeing, a lot of these people that are addicted to these drugs are looking to make fast money and by stealing meat, seafood, baby formula, grocery products. They can turn it around really fast for drugs and cash,” Sampson said.

Those stolen items are then being resold into the market through drug houses to other businesses or restaurants — retailers who typically know they are buying stolen product or “they have a suspicion but they are turning a blind eye to it,” she said.

“Meat is so expensive, so a smaller chain, to be able to survive, is sometimes looking the other way and buying stolen meat.”

There are health and safety risks associated with that, such as products not being stored at the right temperature or being cross-contaminated, Sampson noted.

Sue Ghebari, manager of Family Foods in Calgary’s Mayland Heights, said food theft was such a problem for the grocery store last year that they stopped carrying high-end meats.

“When you look at stock and you know that you’ve put out an entire tenderloin but it doesn’t show that it’s sold in your system ... we’ve decided that for the time being, we’re going to offer sort of a basic meat,” she said.

According to Sampson, large- scale food theft tends to coincide with other crime, such as stolen vehicles, robberies, violence and weapons offences.

“Because it is a low- penalty crime, it will always be there until there are changes in our actual sentencing and penalties on theft under ($5,000),” she said.

Alberta Health Services says that if police alert the health authority that a restaurant has been supplied with stolen meat products, a followup investigation is completed into the safety of the food supply at that facility.