Oakville Beaver, 5 Jul 2008, p. 4

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4- The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday July 5, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com CABINET REFACING Infiltrating the drug sub-culture AFTER BEFORE We can transform your existing cabinets with new doors andlaminate in your choice of style & colour. Select complimentary hardware & have the kitchen of your dreams. No Payments, No Interest for 6 Months O.A.C. Visit our showroom or call for your FREE In Home Consultation 1313 Speers Road, Oakville · 905-847-8964 Mon. - Fri. 9am-5pm, Sat. 10am-4pm www.granitetransformations.ca CARRIERS WANTED The Oakville Beaver The Oakville Beaver is looking for newspaper carriers in your neighbour hood! Support your local carrier Join our carrier club Earn extra money and win prizes Many routes still available Call immediately for more information 905-845-9742 police tactical unit may be called upon to particiNext comes the investigation itself, which can pate. Speed is important to prevent the suspect from also be done in a number of ways depending on what the officers think will work best to determine flushing or otherwise disposing of their drugs. Rogers said police sometimes execute search whether they've been told the truth. This investigation might involve the surveillance warrants when the target is not home in order to of a particular individual or location, the use of an prevent such a loss of evidence. Other techniques can also be utilized, but undercover officer or a variety of other techniques. Like most officers of the Drug and Morality Rogers would not talk about them for fear of comBureau Rogers has done extensive undercover work, promising future operations. What police find when they execute their search which he said provides great insight into the drug sub-culture and how drug dealers run their opera- warrants can also differ drastically. "You could be dealing with a person who has a tions, but making the transition from police officer lot of money, a gorgeous house, to undercover officer is no easy nice cars and from the outside process and requires consider- "You could be dealing with looking in would appear to be a person who has a lot of able preparation. your average citizen," said "The training you receive is money, a gorgeous house, Rogers. from a variety of different nice cars and from the out"But, then the next day you sources and you draw upon could be dealing with people those sources whether it be peer side looking in would appear who have strong addictions to mentoring, formal training or to be your average citizen." crack where there's 12 people in just stuff that you've learned Halton Regional Police the house smoking crack when from speaking to different Detective Constable Roy Rogers you execute your entry." informants or through your own (not his real name) While in some raids, like the investigations or interviewing one described above, the drugs people that are involved in the are in plain sight when police drug sub-culture," said Rogers. "When I'm acting as an undercover officer in arrive in other instances police need to hunt for any type of investigation, I will generally try and them. Rogers noted that people can be very creative forget that I'm there as a police officer. It just makes it easier for you to develop those stories and a rap- when it comes to hiding their drugs. "People will hide stuff sometimes in speakers or port with the person you're dealing with. Sometimes you'd be required to make things up inside TVs," he said. "Any place you can fit a substance people will try and you develop an ability to think fast on your feet. Other times, you might be telling them a story to hide it there. We take our time and we're very that's real from your own personal life. It's really no methodical in our search otherwise a lot of the different than meeting a new person for the first work that you've done could be for nothing." A recent history of high-profile drug busts in time." While most undercover operations go smoothly, Halton shows that in many cases the hard work Rogers noted there have been setbacks including does pay off. On Feb. 4, 2007 police seized $8 million worth situations where the people he was buying crack cocaine from actually came out and asked if he was of cocaine from a transport truck in Milton, resulting in the arrest of a Brampton resident. a cop. On Oct. 17, 2007, Halton's Drug and Morality "On a couple of different occasions they observed something, that had nothing to do with me, that led Bureau assisted numerous other police agencies in them to believe that either the police were following putting an organized drug distribution ring out of business with homes in Burlington and Hamilton me or that I was a police officer," said Rogers. being raided, resulting in the arrests of six people "I was able to convince them that I wasn't." Had the situation gone terribly wrong Rogers and the seizure of $183,500 worth of drugs. On July 20, 2007 Halton police put a marijuana said there were safety measures in place to protect both himself and the people he was investigating, grow operation in Oakville out of commission seizing $465,000 worth of marijuana and arresting a but he would not go into details. Paranoid drug dealers are not the only threat Toronto man. These successes continued into 2008 with undercover officers face during the course of their $783,000 worth of cocaine seized from an Oakville work. Rogers said another situation he had to prepare storage facility on May 30 with an Oakville man for was what to do when you bump into someone arrested. Those arrested in Halton raids have, for the you know from your real life when you're in an most part, been in business for themselves, said undercover role. "What you do depends on whether you're able to Rogers who also pointed out that membership in talk that person and how much that person knows some kind of organized criminal syndicate is not a about you," he said."You might have to brush the prerequisite to sell drugs in Halton. With illegal drugs still readily available in person off or be rude to them, so they'll walk away Halton even after all these arrests and seizures, one from you. Then speak to them about it later." The purpose of all this is for the undercover offi- might think police would be frustrated by the seemcer to gather as much information as possible for ingly endless nature of the war on drugs, however, an investigation that could last as little as a day or the impact of what is being done is obvious to Rogers. as long as six months or more. "There's a number of times where you'll receive All that information gives the police grounds to apply for a search of a suspect's residence or vehicle information about a person dealing hard drugs in a or wherever police believe the drugs are going to be residential area. People addicted to those drugs are coming to those areas, there's kids living around found. The search warrant has to be precise to allow all those houses and the citizens there are experiencevidence found at the scene to be accepted in court. ing some of the problems that come with these Rogers noted that he has written search warrants as activities," said Rogers. "When you go there and are able to successfully long as 85-90 pages to accomplish this. When the time for the raid actually comes the complete an investigation, charge and arrest the Drug and Morality Bureau may handle it them- people responsible for causing those problems for selves, however, if the suspects are believed to be those people you definitely make an impact. I realarmed or another kind of threat is detected the ly believe that." Continued from page 3

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