Three Edmonton women are facing charges under Alberta’s Drug-Endangered Children Act in connection with an infant being exposed to drug deals and cocaine production, ALERT said.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams’ organized crime and gang team laid the charges on Wednesday. They include causing a child to be drug-endangered, causing a child to be in need of intervention, production of cocaine, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of a controlled substance.
Two of the women are 26 and one is 27 years old. Their names are not being released to protect the identity of the 11-month-old baby, who is the biological daughter of one of the accused.
The women brought the baby along “on a number of drug transactions,” an ALERT news release said.
“There was a lot of disbelief,” ALERT spokesman Mike Tucker said.
ALERT expedited the investigation after growing concerns for the health and well-being of the child, the organization said.
A home in northeast Edmonton was searched on March 23 and investigators found “evidence consistent with cocaine trafficking.” According to ALERT, cocaine processing equipment and residue was found throughout the home.
“When you search that residence and see the amount of cocaine and the exposure that infant would have had it’s quite shocking,” Tucker said.
Police said the baby’s room “doubled as a cocaine conversion lab, where the drug was being converted to crack cocaine.”
The little girl was removed from the home.
“The child is doing well and in the care of a family member,” Tucker said.
Comments