COCHRANE— Cochrane RCMP has seen success after a three-month long investigation resulted in the arrest of an individual who was allegedly trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl from Calgary to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
Robert Barrie Pettitt of Calgary was arrested on Feb. 3 and is facing multiple charges including trafficking in a controlled substance and one count of possession of proceeds of a crime.
The 39-year-old Calgarian was scheduled to appear in Cochrane Provincial Court on Tuesday (March 9).
At the time when the investigation began, Cochrane RCMP were aware that the flow of drugs was coming out of Calgary and into the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, and began exploring ways to curb that flow.
“Our detachment wanted to start an investigation into the trafficking of methamphetamine out in the Morely, Stoney Nakoda First Nation,” said Cpl. Troy Savinkoff of the Cochrane RCMP. “Mr. Pettitt was not an individual that we were familiar with at the beginning of this investigation, but as the investigation unravelled, we became more and more aware of him.”
He added the amount Pettitt was trafficking varied, but was typically around the “ounce level” of drugs.
Savinkoff said much of the drug movement on Stoney Nakoda happens very publicly.
“One thing that we noticed during this investigation is that it’s fairly open. A lot of the dealing that is happening is right in front of the public eye, and certainly that is something that we’re going to put an end to,” he said.
The public brazenness of the dealers and traffickers is how the RCMP became aware of Pettitt.
“The community plays a large part in this, telling us what their ongoing concerns are. Knowing those things, you start to brainstorm ideas among investigators on what might be the most effective way to handle it,” he said. “We do know that the flow of drugs in and out of the Stoney Nakoda community is a huge concern for the community. This is just the start of other things that we are planning at the Stoney Nakoda detachment, as well as our Crime Reduction and GI [General Investigation) Units, to try to halt that flow as much as we can.”
The Cochrane RCMP partnered with the Cochrane Crime Reduction Unit, the General Investigation Section and the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team.
“In this particular case, this file started out as a detachment file. We began our investigation and started some preliminary surveillance and identified some targets, and then as the investigation developed, we reached out to ALERT to see what kind of suggestions they might have or what kind of services they might offer us. Then it became a joint investigation between them and us.”
Savinkoff said he is relieved to see this particular individual apprehended given the nature of the substances that were being trafficked.
“All drugs are dangerous, all hard drugs are more so. Fentanyl seems to increase that danger to the public even more. Just from a policing perspective fentanyl is very dangerous for our officers to deal with, so I can imagine how dangerous it is for people to be ingesting. I hope that courts take that into account during sentencing, that this substance does present a very real danger to the public,” he said. “It’s extraordinarily dangerous.”
Although he said he is happy that the three-month long investigation bore fruit in the end, the work of the Cochrane RCMP is far from over.
“It’s very good to have positive results and we’re certainly very happy about it, but we’re very well aware that this is far from the end of it. The danger that these drugs pose to this community are very severe. We’re certainly not done yet, and we will certainly continue our efforts to identify our next targets and make it an uncomfortable place for people to deal drugs out in Stoney Nakoda.”
