The $8 million prize

On Monday, officers in Calgary showed off a collection of firearms, bullets, body armor, and nearly 80 kilograms of cocaine—the spoils of Operation High Noon, a police investigation that concluded last December. Selling at $1,300 to $1,800 an ounce, the drugs alone are priced at more than $8 million. “Nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” one officer noted. “You’re looking at sophisticated organized crime, moving almost to the cartel level,” another explained. But the record-breaking heist, while atypical, only sheds light on a small part of a much larger provincial trend. In 2005, a CPS statistical report showed crack cocaine offences increasing by 113 per cent over a six-year period. Still, Staff Sgt. Darren Cave, speaking at a press conference in Calgary, was quick to highlight the competent work of his department: “While the criminals get more sophisticated with every year, the police are getting to know them, and their tricks, better.”

Calgary Herald