Illegal drugs, booze mean big business in Nunavik

Among last year’s seizures in Nunavik, 15 mickeys of vodka, beer and just over two pounds of marijuana in Kuujjuaq in October 2011. The booze and weed were headed to Aupaluk, population 150. (FILE PHOTO)

Here’s a look at some of the seized drugs, cash and firearms that Montreal-based Aboriginal Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit netted in its May 2005 Project Crystal operation. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Drugs and alcohol continue to pour into Nunavik, sucking millions of dollars a year out of a region where many go hungry or die because of booze-fueled violence and drunk driving.

Kativik Regional Police Force numbers, tabled at the recent meeting of the Kativik Regional Government in Kuujjuaq, show seizures of more than $2.7 million worth of alcohol, hash oil, weed, crack cocaine and pills in Nunavik during 2011.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the multi-million dollar illicit substance market in Nunavik, which some police sources have pegged at more than $30 million a year.

One troubling figure for 2011: seven times more crack cocaine was seized in Nunavik last year than in 2010.

Police seizures in 2011 also included 590 vials of hash oil, 43 kilos of marijuana and 540 pills of ecstasy and speed.

Most of the seizures originated in Kuujjuaq, Inukjuak, Puvirnituq, and Salluit, according to the police report, which did not say whether any arrests on narcotics charges resulted from these seizures.

In Inukjuak, the Nunavik community with the highest number of “last resort financial assistance” (formerly called social assistance or welfare), also produced the the largest quantity of seized drugs.

Of 43,580 grams (96 pounds) of marijuana seized during 2011, 7,164 grams were seized in Inukjuak, 6,376 in Salluit and 6,384 in Kuujjuaq.

With drugs and alcohol worth at least four times more in Nunavik retail markets than in the South, the illicit trade has a big financial impact.

It’s siphoning money out of a region where people are ready to pay up to $600 for a 1.75-litre bottle of vodka that retails for $49 in the South or $100 for a pill that you can buy for $25 on a Montreal street corner.

And there’s a social impact, too. KRPF statistics show the toll of violence and potential injuries related to alcohol used in Nunavik during 2011: 2,000 assaults, 166 sexual assaults and 975 cases of impaired driving.

The Montreal-based Aboriginal Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, formed in 2004 to fight organized crime in aboriginal communities, has worked with the KRPF, Canada Post, on seizures of drugs and alcohol — although in 2006 the KRG suggested the KRPF scale back its southern drug-fighting operations to cut costs.

The special enforcement unit’s largest operation to date was biggest was project Crystal in May 2005 when its team broke a long-time drug pipeline from Montreal to Nunavik and Nunavut in a series of early morning raids.

The operation resulted in 325 charges against more than 40 people.

The police round-up included Inuit and non-Inuit, old and young, men and women, husbands and wives, in 12 Nunavut and Nunavik communities.

In seven years, the special enforcement unit has laid 912 charges and seized $5 million in drugs and property, told councillors at last week’s meeting of the KRG regional council.

“Can they do more? I’m sure they can catch more and they’d like to catch more,” said Paul Parsons, mayor of Kuujjuaq, also the regional councillor for the community, in a later interview.

“They’re able to get these amounts. Do we want everything off the streets? But that’s impossible.”

People in Nunavik who want to provide information to the KRPF can call 1-800-964-2644 or the Surêté du Québec provincial police force at 1-819-964-2400.