Some North Railway residents were pleased to see local RCMP officers swoop in on a home suspected to be focal point for drug activity in Okotoks.
One man, who asked not to be named, said he’d heard from acquaintances the house was a place where people could buy hard drugs like morphine and crack.
“It’s been a crack house ever since he moved in there,” the man said of the neighbouring home.
He said the owner of the home, who was not arrested in the bust, moved in around two years ago. The problems began right away with people coming and going at all hours. The neighbour said he also saw suspicious vehicles stopping near the house weekly and someone coming out to pick something up from the driver’s inside. He said he believed the vehicle was dropping off a week’s worth of drugs.
When he saw police chasing down people from the home and police dogs on the scene, he was glad to see something was being done.
“It might clear them out,” he said. “There’s lots of little kids in the neighbourhood and we don’t need it here.”
Another neighbour said she saw and heard people coming and going from the home at all hours and said she could hear noises from the home late at night. However, she said the commotion did not cause her concern, but said she is glad an arrest was made.
Sgt. Ian Shardlow of the Okotoks RCMP said the crime reduction unit undertook a three-week investigation leading up to the arrest on Sept. 25.
Shardlow said officers found four people inside a residence at 98F North Railway Street. Another man outside the residence was also arrested. One man was charged after officers found a small amount of cocaine, marijuana and Oxycontin inside the home.
Cody William Collins, 48 of Okotoks, is charged with trafficking a controlled substance, two counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, and one count of possession of a controlled substance.
He was remanded in custody and will be in Okotoks Provincial Court Oct. 5.
Shardlow said Collins is known to police, but wasn’t sure if he’d faced drug-related charges in the past.
