Hundreds visited alleged drug dealers, Yukon official contends

Hundreds of people were visiting alleged drug dealers in a Whitehorse apartment building who were evicted after raids onNew Year's eve,according to Jeff Ford, the Director of Public Safety and Investigations in Yukon's Justice Department.

"In one case we had close to 200 visiting in a four day period," saysFord. "And then, in another case, another period of surveillance, 178 visitsin three days."

Four people have been charged with drug trafficking after raids by police in Whitehorseon Dec.31, according to the RCMP and Yukon Justice Department.

The RCMP say ten arrests were made during the raids by their federal drug unit and the Emergency Response Team. They seized $10,000 of marijuana, $1,000 ofcrack cocaine and $5,000cash.

The police investigation began after complaints were made to the territorial government's Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit.

Fordsays it's just one of the investigations sparked by information from the public.

"In the last year I could say that we've had over 60 complaints that we've investigated in 2015 and carried out 11 actions on properties as a result of those investigations, so we continue to have a lot of people phoning us and providing information and expressing concern about what's going on," Ford says.

Justice Department spokesperson Tyler Plaunt says that as a result of that investigation, the tenants in three apartments are beingevicted.

The government's investigation also revealed bylaw and building fire and safety code violations in the SkylineApartments on Lewes Boulevard, says Ford.

"We noticed during the course of the investigation that the building was in such a state of disrepair as to potentially affect the safety of the residents. Number one for us, there was unrestricted access to the building, the scale of visits that we saw at all times of the day and night, there were persons with known criminal history of violence, drug trafficking frequenting the property.

"And, other things in terms of garbage, impeding access to the building in case of emergency. So we referred that information off to Whitehorse Fire and bylaw services and I think they intend to carry out inspections of the building," he says.