jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
Police in southwest Saskatchewan have arrested two men accused of attempting to traffic methamphetamine from Medicine Hat to Swift Current.
Officers from the Saskatchewan RCMP Roving Traffic Unit and the Saskatchewan Highway Safety Patrol pulled over a vehicle driving east along Highway 1 near Swift Current because its mud flaps weren’t equipped.
Upon searching the vehicle, cops found 170.5 grams of meth, which they seized along with cellphones, drug paraphernalia, a scale, a pipe, hard drives, pepper spray and a knife.
The driver, James Gardner, 30, and passenger, Christopher Foster, 48 – both of Swift Current – are each charged with trafficking meth, possessing meth for the purposes of trafficking, possessing a weapon for dangerous purposes, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of an unauthorized weapon and possessing a weapon contrary to a court order.
Medicine Hat Police Service Community Safety Section Staff Sgt. Cory Both told the News the Hat is a sort of “distribution hub” for Maple Creek, Swift Current and Moose Jaw, just as Calgary is a hub for the Hat and Vancouver is for Calgary.
“Drugs come in, migrate west to east typically, from bigger centres to smaller centres,” said Both. “It’s frequent that our local dealers would supply dealers in smaller communities to the east of us.”
Given the nature of the drug trade, this route varies.
“There’s no hard and fast rule,” Both said. “Dealers in all larger cities will have their own distribution networks to all kinds of smaller centres. As a general rule, that’s the flow of things. We’ve also had huge shipments of drugs move east to Toronto to points west as well.”
Gardner and Foster are scheduled to appear in Swift Current Provincial Court on Feb. 19.
— with files from the Prairie Post
