RCMP Watch

Robson Valley Times - July 26, 2006

When Sergeant Georgie Kenzie received a tip about a suspected crystal meth lab on 6th Avenue, she and her team put together an operation to end it.

According to Kenzie, it would have been the first meth lab bust for the North District RCMP. As it turns out, the tip was wrong. There was no lab at that residence, nor had there been.

Kenzie said that the manufacture of the drug leaves behind trace amounts of contaminants that specialists would have detected.

She said that the RCMP would discuss where things went wrong.

“We got information from a reliable source. We had to act on it. It’s unfortunate it wasn’t accurate and we’ll be finding out why,” she said.

Neighbours said that a small army surrounded the residence on Thursday morning, including emergency response teams (ERT), dog handlers, fire fighters and ambulances as well.

She said that when they believe they are breaking into a meth lab, they have to take those precautions.

“We have to get a whole team up from Vancouver and the Emergency Response Team [from Prince George].”

“That’s not only for our safety. If they had gone in there and did find a meth lab, we would have been clearing the neighbourhood. We take it that seriously.”

“There have been a number of instances when these places were booby trapped,” she said.

“Nobody was hurt, I’m sure there was a few surprised people around.”

“We debriefed with ERT team yesterday. Surprisingly the North District ERT team hadn’t been involved with a meth lab takedown before. In one aspect, it was an awesome experience for everybody involved.”

While police have had reports of crystal meth use in town, this was the first time they had direct information that there was a lab here.

“Up until this point, meth hasn’t been a huge problem,” she said.

Kenzie said she realized neighbours would likely be shocked by all of the vehicles.

“I thought to myself that if anybody has any dope in town, it is probably gone now,” she said, laughing.

Kenzie isn’t sure if there are meth labs in town.

“Are they specifically here? We don’t know. We assume there may be one, there may be not.”

The take down team included experts from the Clandestine Laboratory Recovery Team and two chemists from Health Canada.

“There were ten ERT guys, and a negotiator. It is a full blown operation to do one of these,” she said.

Kenzie wants residents to take a positive message away from the ill-fated drug bust.

“This is a clear message to the community that we are going to do whatever it takes to combat drugs. If we get the help from them, we’re going to be doing it.”