'Notorious drug house' in Penhold shut down by police
原始发布日期： 2015-12-14 发布者：中和字变大 字变小
Neighbours looking forward to a good night's sleep after years of fighting, drugs, loud music and more This 'notorious drug house' in Penhold, Alta. has been an issue for both police and neighbours. It was raided an shut down on December 14. (Google Maps) Cars coming and going throughout the night, scantily clad women, loud music, yelling, fighting, urinating and garbage piling up — it was all a bit much for some Penhold, Alta. residents living next to what police call a "notorious drug house" that was shut down on Monday."Nightmare's an understatement," said Ryan Phillip, who lived two-doors down from the house with his wife and children. The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) descended on the house at 52 Heartland Crescent, evicting the tenants, changing the locks, boarding up the windows and erecting a fence around the property. Neither the owner nor the tenants are allowed in for 90 days. The operation was conducted by ALERT's Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) team under a Community Safety Order, designed to interrupt the patterns of bad behaviour at homes used for illegal activities. "This home has been a source of frustration for the neighbourhood with constant drug activity and related disturbances," said RCMP Innisfail Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk in a news release. "RCMP values the role SCAN played in helping restoring this community's sense of safety by closing this home." Quiet neighbourhoodWhile the house has been an issue in his quiet neighbourhood for over a year, Phillip says it wasn't always that way."This house, it was just fine to begin with and then I think something happened — someone left, the wife left or whatever — and then it just started going downhill from there," he said. He says the area isn't the "uppity up of neighbourhoods," but it is populated with lots of young families and "everyone kind of knows each other." The final straw for Phillip came when someone ran from the drug house, dashed across the street, busted through a neighbour's front door and out through the basement in order to get away from what Phillips speculates was people trying to collect on a drug debt. There was also the tactical unit raid in August when five people were arrested and where police found "an array of drugs, two firearms, cash, and stolen property," according to an ALERT news release. "You don't feel safe going outside your house," said Phillip on the situation. "There was no way I would let my kids go outside." But now, with the shut down, the mood on Phillip's cul-de-sac has noticeably shifted. "Everyone's outside, happy, cheerful. Everyone's just watching this happening because it's been a nightmare," he said. |