Whitehorse police say violent crime fuelled by drug trade

Anybody who thinks of Whitehorse as a sleepy northern outpost need only to read the news last week to reconsider: three men convicted for their roles in a B.C./Yukon drug ring, another man turninghimself in to face charges related to a downtown shooting,while one other man remains at largealso wanted in connection with the shooting.

"Our population has gone up and our incidence of criminal offences has gone up," saidPeter Clark,YukonRCMP's commanding officer.

But what Clark finds "deeply disturbing, deeply unsettling," is the recent spike in violent crime. Besides the downtown shooting this month, there was a targeteddrive-by shooting earlier this year and in October, a condo unit was mysteriously peppered by gunfire.

Clark is reluctant to draw directconnections between those events saying police are still investigating but he saidthere's often a common denominator when it comes to street violence.

"Idon't think that anybody would be surprised to hear that there's a drug connection in some of the violent crimes over the last number of months," he said.

"The public, or certain factions of the public, are buying drugs. And that brings drug sales to our territory, andalongwith that comesjurisdictionaldisputes amongthose selling drugs, and along with that comes violence."

Links to organized crime in the south

RCMPsayit's a stark reminder that Yukon is not isolated from what happens in larger, southern centres.

"Unfortunately, we're a market and there are crime groups that will try to sell their product in this area," saidRCMPInspector Archie Thompson. "Sometimes innocent people get caught up in what's happening."

Clark said part of the RCMP's investigative work is "profiling" local suspects to discovertheir affiliations.

"Some of these groups have gotparaphernalia, like T-shirts. They're linking themselves to the southern organized crime groups.And we take that information and intelligence and process it. But to me, it's a very strong signal that the Yukon is not in isolation."

Clark and Thompson believe it's important to remind the public of the links between the drug trade and violent crime, but they said there are many things the public can'tand won'tknow about their ongoing investigations.

"When something happens, we cannot always benefit the investigation by going out with social media and press releases. Sometime that might put the investigation in jeopardy," Clark said.