Crime
Lab shut down, two arrested for selling fentanyl as heroin
ALERT Edmonton’s organized crime and gang team has shut down a fentanyl production lab operating out of a home in southeast Edmonton. Two people were arrested and nearly $1 million worth of drugs were seized.
With the help of the Edmonton Police Service’s Clandestine Lab Team, ALERT investigators executed a search warrant on the home in the Silverberry neighbourhood on August 8, 2018. Once inside, they discovered a lab where fentanyl was being processed to look like heroin. More than two kilograms of processed fentanyl was seized, which, if sold as heroin, has an estimated value of $800,000.
“We have seen street-level dealers passing off fentanyl as other drugs before, but this is one of the first times we’ve encountered a production lab specifically set up to produce fentanyl that would be sold under such false pretenses,” said Insp. Marc Cochlin, officer in charge of ALERT’s Edmonton teams. “It’s alarming to see producers harboring such a blatant disregard for the safety of their consumers and for the safety of the community as a whole.”
Also found in the home were 500 grams of fentanyl powder, five kilograms of a buffing agent and $900 cash proceeds of crime. Investigators also seized a 2011 Mercedes-Benz sedan, which will be submitted to the provincial civil forfeiture office for review.
Dylan Vande Gutche, 21, and Robert Burke, 18, have each been charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime. However, it is expected that more charges will be laid against both suspects in the near future.
Due to the fentanyl contamination in the house, the hazardous materials team from Edmonton Fire Rescue Services was called in to assist with the operation. Alberta Health Services has inspected the home and declared it unfit for human habitation, and will determine how much remediation will be necessary.
This investigation began in December 2017.
Members of the public who suspect drug or gang activity in their community can call local police, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers is always anonymous.
Crime
Biden’s ‘preemptive pardons’ would set ‘dangerous’ precedent, constitutional scholar warns
From LifeSiteNews
By Bob Unruh
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley warned that preemptive pardons ‘would do precisely what Biden suggests that he is deterring: create a dangerous immunity for presidents and their allies in committing criminal abuses.’
An expert who not only has testified before Congress on the U.S. Constitution but has represented members in court cases is warning about Joe Biden’s speculated agenda to deliver to his friend and supporters preemptive pardons.
It is Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, who wrote, “After years of lying to the American people about the influence-peddling scandal and promising not to consider a pardon for his son, Biden would end his legacy with the ultimate dishonesty: converting pardons into virtual party favors.”
There has been much speculation about those preemptive pardons from Biden, who lied about allowing juries and courts to determine the outcomes of son Hunter’s criminal gun and tax cases, flip-flopped and pardoned him.
Hunter Biden could have been ordered to jail for years for his felony gun convictions and his guilty pleas to felony tax charges.
However, Joe Biden handed him a get-out-of-jail free card, then followed up with hundreds and hundreds more commutations and pardons to a long list of those with criminal convictions.
The activity triggered a rash of speculation about those preemptive pardons, and Turley explains what’s going on.
“Democrats are worried about the collapsing narrative that President-elect Donald Trump will destroy democracy, end future elections, and conduct sweeping arrests of everyone from journalists to homosexuals. That narrative, of course, ignores that we have a constitutional system of overlapping protections that has blocked such abuses for over two centuries.”
Thus, the talk of preemptive pardons, but Turley said it wouldn’t work out.
“Ironically, preemptive pardons would do precisely what Biden suggests that he is deterring: create a dangerous immunity for presidents and their allies in committing criminal abuses,” he said.
He noted if Biden delivers those pardons, “he would fundamentally change the use of presidential pardons by granting ‘prospective’ or ‘preemptive’ pardons to political allies. Despite repeated denials of President-elect Donald Trump that he is seeking retaliation against opponents and his statements that he wants ‘success [to be] my revenge,’ Democratic politicians and pundits have called for up to thousands of such pardons.”
He explained there’s politics all over the scheme.
“After many liberals predicted the imminent collapse of democracy and that opponents would be rounded up in mass by the Trump Administration, they are now contemplating the nightmare that democracy might survive and that there will be no mass arrests,” he wrote. “The next best thing to a convenient collapse of democracy is a claim that Biden’s series of preemptive pardons averted it. It is enough to preserve the narrative in the face of a stable constitutional system.”
But there will be a cost to such a “political stunt,” he said.
“Preemptive pardons could become the norm as presidents pardon whole categories of allies and even themselves to foreclose federal prosecutions. … It will give presidents cover to wipe away any threat of prosecution for friends, donors, and associates. This can include self-pardons issued as implied condemnations of their political opponents. It could easily become the final act of every president to pardon himself and all of the members of his Administration.
“We would then have an effective immunity rule for outgoing parties in American politics.”
He noted that in the past, Bill Clinton pardoned both family members and political donors.
“Yet, despite that history, no president has seen fit to go as far as where Biden appears to be heading,” he said. Promoters of the plan, he said, “would prefer to fundamentally change the use of the pardon power to maintain an apocalyptic narrative that was clearly rejected by the public in this election. If you cannot prove the existence of the widely touted Trump enemies list, a Biden pardon list is the next best thing.”
Reprinted with permission from the WND News Center.
Alberta
B.C. traveller arrested for drug exportation during Calgary layover
From the Alberta RCMP
B.C. traveller arrested for drug exportation during Calgary layover
Calgary – On Nov. 17, 2024, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers at the Calgary International Airport were conducting outbound exams when they intercepted luggage from a commercial flight destined for the United Kingdom. During the exam, officers found and seized 12 kg of pressed cocaine and a tracking device. The owner of the bag was subsequently arrested by CBSA prior to boarding a flight to Heathrow Airport.
The Integrated Border Enforcement Team in Alberta, a joint force operation between the RCMP Federal Policing Northwest Region, CBSA and Calgary Police Service, was notified and a criminal investigation was initiated into the traveller and the seized drugs.
Justin Harry Carl Beck, 29, a resident of Port Coquitlam, B.C., was arrested and charged with:
- Exportation of a controlled substance contrary to section 6(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act;
- Possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking contrary to section 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Beck is scheduled to appear at the Alberta Court of Justice in Calgary on May 6, 2025.
“This seizure is a testament to the exemplary work and investigative expertise shown by CBSA Border Services Officers at Calgary International Airport. Through our key partnerships with the RCMP and the Calgary Police Service, the CBSA works to disrupt those attempting to smuggle illegal drugs across our borders and hold them accountable.”
- Janalee Bell-Boychuk, Regional Director General, Prairie Region, Canada Border Services Agency
“The RCMP Federal Policing Northwest Region’s top priority has always been, and will continue to be, public safety. This investigation serves as an important reminder that this extends beyond any border. By working together, we prevented this individual from importing an illicit substance into a foreign country where it had the potential to cause significant harm to others, all for the sake of turning a profit.”
- Supt. Sean Boser, Officer in Charge of Federal Serious Organized Crime and Border Integrity – Alberta, RCMP Federal Policing Northwest Region
“This investigation underscores the importance of collaboration in drug trafficking investigations. Our partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country, and internationally, are vital to addressing crimes that cross multiple borders. By intercepting these drugs before they could reach their destination, we have ensured a safer community, both locally and abroad.”
- Supt. Jeff Bell, Criminal Operations & Intelligence Division, Calgary Police Service
IBET’s mandate is to enhance border integrity and security along the shared border, between designated ports of entry, by identifying, investigating and interdicting persons, organizations and goods that are involved in criminal activities.
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