Three separate trips to the Windsor Hotel in less than a week led police to a large haul of drugs and guns last month.
Police shared details of the busts Tuesday, saying given the quantity of weapons and illicit material seized, they would like to have a conversation about the hotel’s future operations.
“These establishments are attracting criminals,” Insp. Max Waddell says. “We have seen premises in the city of Winnipeg that have been shut down, and I would say that absolutely stopped those criminals and those actions from occurring.”
“It’s most certainly a conversation that we need to have on a move forward basis, and would be definitely a move in the right direction.”
The busy week started with what officers say was a routine call to the hotel Nov. 2.
Members of the guns and gang unit were at the hotel at 187 Garry St. when they ran into a man who was wanted for breaching a court order.
The man was arrested and officers searched his bag.
Police say they found 137 grams of cocaine, 20 grams of crack, 221 OxyNeo pills and small quantities of unknown powder and liquid.
The total street value of the drugs is $19,340, according to police, who say the OxyNeo pills were stolen about a week earlier.
There was also a loaded 9-mm handgun, a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle, ammunition, five cell phones and roughly $7,600 in cash in the bag, police say.
Sean Bennett, 46, of Winnipeg is facing a long list of charges including possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, and two counts of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Police say they were at the hotel two days later to follow up on the arrest when they happened upon another opportunity to make a drug bust.
They say officers were speaking with a man in a room at the hotel when they noticed what appeared to be a bag of meth on a table.
A further search found 6.5 ounces of meth, a loaded pellet gun, an improvised firearm, ammunition, packaging materials and score sheets, as well as $700 in cash.
“We have seen more of this exact model currently in the city of Winnipeg, so no doubt someone is manufacturing them,” Insp. Waddell says of the improvised gun. “Earlier in the year, we arrested an individual — I believe they were in possession of 12 (improvised firearms) — and we were able to dismantle a manufacturing premise.”
David Allan White, 55, of Winnipeg is facing a number of drug and weapons charges.
But police weren’t done at the hotel for the week — reports of gunfire brought officers back Nov. 6.
Police say a fight in the bar led a man to hit a 35-year-old woman with the butt-end of a shotgun. That man then pointed the gun at the woman, who batted it away with her arm, causing the weapon to fire off into a hotel room door.
The suspect fled the hotel before officers arrived, but left behind a large bag.
In that bag, police found a loaded sawed-off shotgun, a 410-gauge sawed-off shotgun, a loaded .22-calibre rifle and several rounds of ammunition.
“It’s disappointing, to say the least, that individuals would think that it’s acceptable — not only to have this type of firepower or these illicit drugs — but within a stone’s throw of our police headquarters,” Insp. Waddell says.
Officers caught up with the suspect in the 300 block of Aberdeen Avenue last week.
Randall Preston Bourassa, 31, of Winnipeg is facing a number of charges, including assault with a weapon and three counts of possession of a weapon.
All three men have been detained in custody.