3 women charged after child's nursery used as drug lab

Three women face child endangerment charges after police say they discovered an infant's nursery was being used as a cocaine conversion lab in a northeast Edmonton home.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), which searched the home on March 23, says evidence of cocaine trafficking was found.

"There was evidence and cocaine residue all throughout the home, also near some ... sippy cups and other bottles that the baby would have used," ALERT spokesperson Mike Tucker said Thursday.

The women, two of whom are 26 and the other 27, produced cocaine and converted it to crack cocaine in the presence of an 11-month-old girl, ALERT said in a news release.

"It's really appalling to have them exposed to these harmful drugs," Tucker said. "How often do we talk about locking up your cleaning solutions or keeping household chemicals out of harm's way, and in this case we allege there was cocaine being processed right in the nursery."

One of the women charged is the biological mother of the child.

Police said the women brought the infant along on a number of drug transactions, and used the girl's nursery to convert cocaine into crack cocaine. ALERT accelerated its investigation due to fears for the child's well-being.

The Child at Risk Response Team (CARRT) removed the child from the home.

The three women were charged Wednesday with various offences, including:

• Causing a child to be drug-endangered
• Causing a child to be in need of intervention
• Production of cocaine
• Possession for the purpose of trafficking
• Possession of a controlled substance

Since 2006, ALERT teams across the province have made almost 10,000 arrests and seized $595 million worth of illicit drugs.

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