Tips from public lead to arrests and recovered vehicles with Elk Point RCMP

Drugs, weapons, and ammunition were seized by Elk Point RCMP.

Three stolen vehicles have been recovered and six people charged because of tips made by the public, according to Cpl. Ron Bumbry, the media relations officer for the Eastern Alberta District of the RCMP.

Elk Point RCMP seized weapons, drugs, and recovered a stolen vehicle on Nov. 10 following a tip that two people wanted by police were driving a stolen vehicle and in possession of firearms.

With help from the Eastern Alberta District Rural Crime Reduction Unit, Mounties found a vehicle reported stolen from Bonnyville in October.

The vehicle was parked in the driveway of a home in Frog Lake and two men were arrested inside.

Police also found what is believed to be methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, ammunition and four firearms inside the home. Some of the guns were loaded.

37-year old Byron Crane and 40-year old Kristen Podolecki were arrested and charged with weapons offenses and drug trafficking. They were remanded and will appear in St. Paul Provincial Court today.

“When that trafficking charge is laid, there’s no distinction for how much of the drug is found, it’s much more to do with how it is found. For example, if it’s separated in to individual baggies for sale,” said Bumbry.

He noted the drug paraphernalia which was found was a scale.

On Nov. 12, a member of the public made a report of two suspicious vehicles stuck in a field in Frog Lake.

“And these are the things we ask the public to call about. Because you know your community, you know when there’s a vehicle there that doesn’t belong or seems off,” said Bumbry.

The two vehicles in the field were stolen from Bonnyville and Lloydminster earlier this month. While searching the vehicles, RCMP found a rifle, ammunition, and a knife. None of the people present had a firearms license, and so all were arrested.

20-year old Taylor Dillon, 25-year old Ronald Jimmy, 35-year old Kezia Lewis, and 31-year old Joshua Lecky were all charged with weapons and property crime offenses and released. They are scheduled to appear in St. Paul Provincial Court on Dec. 3.

According to Bumbry, when RCMP find stolen vehicles like the two stuck in the field and the one recovered from the home, “in most cases they are returned to either the owner or the insurance agency the owner filed a claim through.”

He said it depends on the circumstances and whether the vehicle can be driven from the lot it is towed to, but “what to do with the vehicle is between the owners and the insurer.”