Five people from Grand Rapids, including parents and their son, and another in Winnipeg are facing charges related to organized crime drug trafficking resulting from a months-long RCMP investigation.
RCMP officers raided two homes in Grand Rapids on Feb. 14, arresting four people, while also arresting another suspect from Grand Rapids who was in custody at Headingley Correctional Centre and a sixth person in Winnipeg the same day.
Bobby Raymond Hudson, 26, of Grand Rapids, is charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, conspiracy to traffic cocaine and conspiracy to possess the proceeds of crime.
Twenty-nine-year-old Harvey Cook Jr. of Grand Rapids, who was arrested at Headingley where he was in custody on impaired driving charges, is charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine and conspiracy to possess the proceeds of crime.
Terry Andrew Smith, 27, of Grand Rapids is charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
Thirty-three-year old Jesse Richard Thomas of Winnipeg is charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
Madeline Cook, 59, and Harvey James Cook Sr., 59, both of Grand Rapids, are charged with conspiracy to possess the proceeds of crime.
Cook Jr., Thomas and Hudson remain in custody, while Smith, Cook and Cook Sr. were released.
RCMP Manitoba Integrated Gang Intelligence Units officers began investigating a suspected Manitoba Warriors network supplying cocaine from Winnipeg to the Grand Rapids area last September. On Nov. 12 of last year, Hudson, who police say is a member of the Warriors, and Smith, were arrested on Highway 6 en route to Grand Rapids, when a search of their vehicle turned up a 567-gram package of cocaine. RCMP also seized Hudson's Manitoba Warriors vest. Both were later released.
Police say they traced the transport of drugs to Cook Jr., who they say is a full-patch member of the Warriors, and to his parents. Thomas, arrested Feb. 14 in Winnipeg, is a Warriors associate, according to police, and was allegedly supplying the drugs.
In the course of the arrests, police seized a rifle, a shotgun and a collapsible baton.
“Illegal drugs are insidious and fund many different types of crime,” said Manitoba RCMP media relations officer Sgt. Paul Manaigre in a press release. “Our officers and intelligence experts worked tirelessly on this investigation for many months in order to take not only drugs and guns, but gang members off the street. The RCMP has seen the destruction caused by the trafficking of illicit drugs, and we will continue to enforce the laws against this to their fullest extent.”
