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Officer moves to enhanced policing
Mac Olsen
for South Peace News
Const. Chris Landry has been with the RCMP less than two years and he’s already sinking his teeth into major crimes.
Coming out of the RCMP Depot in Regina, Sask. March 31, 2008, Landry came to work for the High Prairie detachment as a regular member.
But he transferred to the enhanced policing unit in September 2009 after Const. Jeremy Bowler transferred to another community.
“I’ve always had an interest in getting drugs off the street,” says Landry. “I want to do anything I can to help.”
While working as a regular officer, Landry was involved with many drug-related investigations and search warrants. They gave him further knowledge about the procedures used, motivating him to become part of the unit.
He also teaches the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program to youth and is now teaching at Peavine Bishop Routhier School.
Cpl. Blaine Oster, who is also part of the unit, introduced Landry to the High Prairie town council during their Jan. 27 meeting. Council extended their welcome and gratitude to Landry.
Besides making High Prairie and the surrounding communities safe, the unit’s mandate, which falls under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Criminal Code of Canada, is to identify drug traffickers and bring them to the “eye of the court,” says Oster. They go after those in drug production, trafficking, exporting, importing, double doctoring, possession and possession of precursors, or the items used in production such as pharmaceutical ingredients.
Landry and Oster have investigated several offences where offenders have approached the community at or near pharmacies in High Prairie to purchase prescription drugs and sell them for profit.
One person, David Reuben Nahachick, 25, of Atikameg First Nation, received a 90-day sentence Dec. 1, 2009 in High Prairie provincial court for trafficking in Codeine, Oxycodone and Bromazepam. He also received a 10-year prohibition for all firearms, as well as a lifetime prohibition for restricted firearms.
Oster says they will continue to focus on such crimes and bring the accused to the “eye of the courts.”
The unit is a funded partnership between the Town of High Prairie, the M.D. of Big Lakes and Peavine Métis Settlement. It is in its third year and a three-year renewal agreement is in the works between the partners and the RCMP, although the M.D. of Big Lakes has already approved it.
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