Loaded weapons seized in 2 recent incidents show connection between drugs, guns in Winnipeg: police
Police say they were flagged down by a convenience store employee who told them about theft
Winnipeg police say the recent arrests of three people in two separate incidents show a clear connection between drugs and guns in the city.
A 34-year old Winnipeg man faces a series of weapons-related and drug charges after allegedly being found with $27,000 worth of methamphetamine.
And a 17-year-old female and a 31-year-old man are facing multiple weapons-related offences in a separate incident, after police used a stop stick to halt a vehicle leaving the area of a theft and found a loaded rifle inside, the Winnipeg Police Service said Friday.
At approximately 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, officers made a traffic stop on Garry Street north of Broadway.
They say the driver had a concealed and loaded .22-calibre pistol, more than $1,000 in cash and 55 grams of methamphetamine on him. He also had a backpack, which police said had nearly another kilogram of meth, 69 rounds of ammunition and a scale.
The 34-year-old man was detained at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.
Loaded rifle found in car
A few hours later, just after midnight on Thursday, police say officers were flagged down by a convenience store employee in the area of Ellice Avenue and Arlington Street, who told them a theft just occurred. Officers say they saw a suspect get into the passenger side of a vehicle, which then fled.
Officers followed the vehicle to the area of Portage Avenue and Erin Street, where the stop stick was used. The car eventually came to a stop on Portage west of Route 90.
Police say they found a loaded .22-calibre rifle in the car between the driver and the passenger, and after searching the driver found other weapons and ammunition.
The male driver and the female passenger were taken into custody.
There's a clear connection between drugs and guns in Winnipeg, Const. Tammy Skrabek said at a news conference Friday.
"If we can reduce the amount of drugs on the street, odds are pretty good we're going to reduce the amount of weapons we're seeing and the use of weapons that we're seeing," she said.