RCMP in the Northwest Territories are reporting that officers seized about a pound of crack cocaine from a vehicle near Enterprise, south of Hay River
According to a news release from the Mounties, police from the RCMP’s Federal Investigations Unit (FIU) stopped a northbound vehicle believed to be on route to Yellowknife on Sunday.
Police say the vehicle stop was initiated as part of a three month investigation into cocaine trafficking in the NWT.
The vehicle’s two occupants were arrested and their vehicle was searched.
Inside the vehicle, police say they located approximately one pound of crack cocaine.
Shortly after the arrests, Mounties executed search warrants at two Yellowknife apartment units located in a downtown apartment building.
Police say evidence of drug trafficking was located inside the apartment.
They don’t say what that evidence was.
Two people were arrested and later released without charges, police stated.
The two occupants of the vehicle, Ronald Joseph Payne, 55, and 61-year-old Lyle Elliot Yanke, both of Yellowknife, are each charged with trafficking cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
ʺThe RCMP in the Northwest Territories sees the damage done to our communities by the illicit drug trade on a daily basis. We remain committed to conducting enforcement at all levels of the distribution chain. In this case, we were able to arrest two individuals allegedly transporting drugs from Alberta into the NWT and seize the drugs before they were able to reach our communities to do more harmʺ states RCMP Staff Sergeant Dean Riou, of the ʺGʺ Division Federal Investigations Unit.
Payne and Yanke were released from custody after appearing before a Justice of the Peace on Monday.
Their next court appearance is on March 23 in Hay River.
Anyone with information on suspicious activity is asked to call Yellowknife RCMP at 669-1111, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 nwtnutips.com, (click on “submit a web tip”) or text: “nwtnutips” plus your message to 274637.
