COCHRANE— Cochrane RCMP has laid charges against a Calgary man after officers located significant amounts of illegal drugs during a search warrant executed on his residence.
On Thursday (June 17) the Cochrane Crime Reduction Unit alongside the General Investigation Section located what is believed to be 106 grams of methamphetamine, 53 grams of fentanyl and small quantities of other illegal drugs at the residence of 38-year-old Robert Pettitt.
Pettitt has been charged with 11 offences, including trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, weapons offences and failing to comply with release conditions.
Cpl. Troy Savinkoff of the Cochrane RCMP said Pettitt was known to officers.
In January, the Cochrane RCMP General Investigation Section began an investigation into the distribution of illegal drugs on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
After a lengthy investigation, Cochrane RCMP became aware that Pettitt was allegedly moving drugs from his residence in Calgary to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
On Feb. 3 Pettitt was arrested on charges of trafficking in a controlled substance and one count of possession of proceeds of a crime.
“That initial investigation had to do with trying to figure out who was distributing and bringing illegal drugs out onto the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. As a result of that investigation, at that time a search warrant was conducted on Mr. Pettitt’s residence, some drugs were seized and he was charged with trafficking in a controlled substance as well as some other offences,” Savinkoff said. “He ultimately, after that charge, was released but was still before the courts and hasn’t dealt with those particular charges.”
Pettitt has stayed on the RCMP’s radar for these last few months, and after another brief investigation, arrested once again.
“In the very early hours of June 17, our Crime Reduction Unit, after a fairly short project looking at Pettitt again, we executed a search warrant on his residence again in Calgary,” he said.
The arrest of Pettitt, Savinkoff said, is good news for the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
“We don’t believe Mr. Pettitt was exclusively supplying the Stoney Nakoda First Nation with drugs. We feel that it was one part of a larger thing that he was doing including dealing drugs in the City of Calgary,” he said.
Savinkoff noted that Pettitt appeared before a Justice on June 17 and was remanded for his next court appearance on June 21.
At that point the court will make a determination whether or not Pettitt will be remanded into custody while he awaits his trail, or if he will be released again.
To remand a suspect into custody requires that individual to meet certain criteria, Savinkoff said.
The first criteria are the likelihood that a suspect will appear for a designated court date if they have a history of avoiding or not showing up for court dates and the extent to which they avoided apprehension by the police.
The second is the suspect’s probability to re-offend, while the third has to do with the safety of the public and witnesses.
“The case will be made based on the secondary grounds whether or not he will be remanded. A justice of the peace or a judge will look at the totality of everything and make their own determination on what will happen with him,” Savinkoff said.
Savinkoff noted he was happy to see the positive results of the Crime Reduction Unit’s investigation, but understands the problem is far from taken care of.
“We’re not ignorant to think that there’s only one person trafficking narcotics in our community, but we do believe that Mr. Pettitt has been active at it. We do feel that with this latest arrest that it may at least have some effect on the communities that we serve in making them safe. At the end of the day, right now, Pettitt is in jail and we’ll move on to the next project, or targets and figure out what we’ll do next in combating this issue,” Savinkoff said.
Savinkoff said this arrest is the latest in a string of good results reported by Cochrane’s Crime Reduction Unit.
Last week RCMP made an arrest on a man on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, seizing three firearms and a workbench that was being used to convert airsoft mock firearms into actual firearms capable of firing live ammunition.
“It’s a couple of real successes by our Crime Reduction Unit out there in the last week and we’re extremely happy about it,” he said.
