Edmonton drug gangs wage war with increasing firepower, police say

Drugs gangs battling over millions of dollars in cash are arming themselves with bigger, more powerful guns as they compete with rivals for territory on Edmonton streets, say the police officers fighting them.

A drug bust two weeks ago in north Edmonton took an arsenal of those guns off city streets, a stash of weapons that included carbines, converted handguns, silencers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Insp. Darcy Strang with ALERT said the recent bust shows just how far gangs will go to arm themselves and how dangerous they have become.

During Thursday's news conference, Strang showed off a seized Glock-17 handgun that had been converted to fully automatic. The gun came with a suppressor and a 50-round drum.

"This gun is an extremely dangerous weapon," Strang said. "It's not designed to be fully automatic. This thing would shoot about 1,200 rounds per minute."

Strang said police are seizing some weapons they've never seen before as gangs compete to have more firepower than their rivals.

"You've got a Walther PPK that you've got stuffed in the back of your pants," he said, by way of example. "And you point that at me. I'd probably like to pull out my automatic Glock-17, which is going to throw, in 30 seconds, 50 rounds at you.

"I'd like to win this battle. So therefore, I'd like to have firepower that's greater than yours."

The Edmonton ALERT team conducted a series of raids Aug. 14, with the assistance of Edmonton tactical team members. Two homes in the northeast and one home in the northwest were searched.

Eight firearms were seized, including that Glock handgun. Other firearms included:

- KRISS Vector carbine with silencer;

- Two SKS semi-automatic rifles;

- Ruger handgun with the serial number removed;

- CZ 75 Tactical Series handgun;

- Walther PPK handgun that was previously reported as stolen;

- Browning rifle;

- 2 suppressors;

- Thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The KRISS Vector carbine came with a silencer. The gun is designed to fold up so it could be put into a briefcase. It fires 45-calibre rounds and came equipped with 30-round clips

Strang said he had never seen one before, and characterized the arsenal seized in this bust as "literally the gamut of weapons of war."

"Just getting these type of weapons off the streets," he said, "is a big win for us."

The ALERT team also seized more than $100,000 worth of drugs, including:

- 26 grams of cocaine;

- Almost 2,000 illicit prescription pills;

- 30 grams of powder MDMA;

- 20 grams of psilocybin;

- 1,357 grams of marijuana;

- 38 kilograms of a cocaine buffing agent;

- Hydraulic press used for pressing cocaine;

- $13,355 in cash.

A 23-year-old man who was the main target of the investigation has been charged with 39 drug and weapons-related offences. Two women and another man were also charged.

ALERT last year took 197 firearms off the streets that belonged to organized criminal gangs, either bikers or drug cartels, Strang said. Some of the guns are imported illegally from the U.S., some are stolen.

He said on raids like this one, police commonly call on tactical units to help out. These arrests came off without a hitch, but he said police always have to prepare for the worst.

"We don't know what we're going to find," he said, "what's going to be in the hands of the bad guys when we get in there."

Strang said it is hoped these arrests may lead to others.

"Our objective," he said, "is to move our way up the food chain."