Crime and cargo make our top five online list

It would have been a clean sweep of crime stories that drew most readers to our Nunatsiaq News website last week were it not for one story about something Nunavummiut are always interested in reading about: air freight.

According to Google Analytics pageviews, readers most often clicked, tapped and swiped on stories about drugs, bootlegged booze and untimely deaths of Inuit residents in southern Canada.

In order of popularity, here are the top read Nunatsiaqonline.ca stories from June 29 to July 3:

The first was a breaking news story by reporter David Murphy about a notorious convicted murderer who died while serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

Mark King Jeffrey, 34, was found unresponsive in his cell at Beaver Creek Institution near Gravenhurst, Ont., on June 29. Jeffrey was convicted in 2007 for stabbing 13-year-old Jennifer Naglingniq 31 times in 2002 in Iqaluit.

The second most read online story last week was a piece by Nunavik reporter Sarah Rogers about a huge booze bust in the Hudson Strait community of Salluit in northern Quebec.

Kativik Regional Police Force officers confiscated 168 bottles of vodka flown in as cargo to that community June 22. The Kativik Regional Government estimated that the street value of the alcohol exceeded $20,000.

From vodka to another dangerous vice: cocaine. Reporter Murphy wrote about an Iqaluit coke bust June 28 that netted a half ounce of coke and an undisclosed quantity of marijuana.

Two people, aged 21 and 22, were charged with offences related to the bust.

Another death attracted readers’ attention toward the end of last week.

Reporter Rogers wrote about a Montreal police investigation into the death of 29-year-old Nellie Angutiguluk who was found dead in a Montreal apartment May 18.

Police first deemed it a suspicious death, then turned it into a homicide investigation. They are still seeking information from anyone who may have spent time with Angutiguluk prior to her death in May.

The final story to make the top five list from last week was a story by editor Jim Bell on a 10-year freight deal between the Inuit-owned First Air and Cargojet, a national air freight carrier with facilities in Canada, Bermuda and Newark, N.J.

“Our goal with this agreement is two-fold. It is intended to create financially viable cargo operations in the North and to expedite service to our customers,” First Air CEO Brock Friesen said in a news release.