Enforcement increase leads to more charges

In recent weeks, police in Regina and area have pulled off a number of significant seizures that have seen various drugs and drug-related property taken off the streets.

While at first glance it might simply seem like there are more drugs out there, the sergeant in charge of a Regina-based street team set up to tackle the drug problem said increased enforcement is, to a large extent, behind the numerous recent arrests and seizures.

“There seems to be more drugs on the street, however probably the biggest factor would be that there has been more enforcement action, more attention put to drug enforcement,” said Sgt. Todd Wall with the Regina Integrated Drug Enforcement Street Team (formerly known as the Regina Integrated Drug Unit). “So when you put more time towards any one thing, you’re going to come up with more results. But it seems like there’s a bit of an appetite, not only by RIDEST, but from other units within the Regina Police Service to do some drug work within the city.”

“THERE SEEMS TO BE MORE DRUGS ON THE STREET . . .” SGT. TODD WALL

The reason for that is simple.

“A lot of crime is directly or indirectly related to drugs in some fashion, whether it be right from homicide to property crimes like break and enters or theft ... They’re typically stealing things to sell to support a habit,” Wall said.

“So I would wholeheartedly say that, yeah, a wide range of crime is directly or indirectly related to the drug trade in Regina.”

While police are still seeing plenty of marijuana out there, cocaine in both powder and rock forms is increasingly popular in Regina as it is in other parts of the province. Police have also made some smaller seizures recently of other less prevalent hard drugs, such as heroin.

RIDEST — made up of members of the Regina Police Service and RCMP — typically looks after lower to mid-level drug investigations while a project team and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit tackle the higher-level investigations. With other units within the city police and RCMP also lending a hand in drug investigations, that means communication between the various teams is key — especially since drug trafficking works in a similar way with larger organizations looking to smaller groups to sell their product on the street. In that way, taking the smaller fish out of play makes life more difficult for the larger players.

“At times it feels like we’re making progress, but other times not so much,” Wall said. “I don’t see law enforcement ever having the ability to completely squash the drug trade. I don’t know if that’s ever possible. However, by taking the enforcement action at the local level to the high level — the street level to the project level — it is keeping a lid on things. It is preventing it from growing even larger and sometimes the smaller projects, if you want to call them that, or the things that we do at the lower to the medium level, does have an impact on the bigger organizations because it’s kind of like a tiered system.”

Because so much of what RIDEST does is information driven, Wall said his team — as well as police in general — count on the public to come forward with tips about possible drug-related activity in their neighbourhoods.

“The bottom line is we’d like them to phone because there’s no way for us to know what’s going on on every single street in the city,” he said. “If no one phones and tells us, then how are we going to find out?”

RIDEST has a tip line at 306-777-8602. Tips are kept confidential. Those with information can also call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-2228477.