One of two charged in Red Deer drug and weapons bust scheduled for trial

With assistance from the Red Deer General Investigation Section, emergency response teams, a K-9 unit, and a member of the Wetaskiwin RCMP, police searched the residence and arrested two suspects without injury.

According to Mounties, Matthew Stewart and Tia Cobbe were previously known to police. They were arrested, taken before a justice of the peace, and remanded into custody.

Stewart was charged with the following offences:

Trafficking in property obtained by crime over $5000
Unsafe storage of firearms
Unauthorized possession of a firearm
Possession of a restricted or prohibited firearm, two counts
Possession of weapon obtained by crime, two counts
Possession of a firearm when knowing possession is unauthorized, two counts
Weapons possession contrary to order, two counts
Possess body armour without a valid permit
Possession of property obtained by crime less than $5000, six counts
Possession of property obtained by crime over $5000, three counts
Possess break-in instruments
Possession of Methamphetamine

Cobbe was charged with the following offences:

Trafficking in property obtained by crime over $5000
Unsafe storage of firearms
Unauthorized possession of a firearm, three counts
Possession of firearm without licence/registrations, two counts
Possession of weapon obtain by crime, two counts
Possess body armour without a valid permit
Possession of property obtained by crime less than $5000, five counts
Possession of property obtained by crime over $5000, two counts
Possession of methamphetamine

“People who engage in property crime often work together in networks; mostly informal, not like gangs, but people who are involved in this kind of stuff know each other,” explained Sgt. Robert Daisley of the CRT, shortly after the arrests. “I think, although it’s not organized crime, it will have an impact on that social network of people who are involved in these.”

According to police, the cannabis products are believed to be connected to a series of break-ins at a retail location in Wetaskiwin.

“As a business, when you lose $19,000 worth of product in a break-and-enter, that has a significant impact on your ability as a business owner to run your business. Recovering some of the product will hopefully help to mitigate that,” said Daisley.

RCMP say two of the firearms and a set of body armour were confirmed to be stolen from a Sylvan Lake residence. All the firearms seized were non-restricted weapons, except for a sawed-off shotgun. Police say the suspects were not authorized to possess non-restricted weapons, and sawing off the barrel of a shotgun is a prohibited weapon modification.

“It’s obviously not great for people who are not supposed to have guns to have large quantities of guns,” added Daisley. “We’re happy to be able to take that stuff away from the bad people and get what we can back to the good people.”

Following the arrests, authorities began the process of identifying the owners of some of the unexpected items found, such as a collection of hockey cards, including a Wayne Gretzky rookie card.

“The most important thing I would take away from this is that it’s really difficult for us to do our jobs without help from members of the public and if there is something going on in your neighbourhood, it’s really important that you pass that on,” said Daisley.

by Sheldon Spackman

One of two charged in Red Deer drug and weapons bust scheduled for trial

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