Police said they conducted a traffic stop on Wednesday near Ellice Avenue and Century Street around 4:30 p.m., and after searching the vehicle, found two kilos of cocaine and $30,000. The seizure of the drugs and cash prompted the arrest of the two men in the vehicle -- police then said their investigation led them to search a home on Strathcona Street. Inside the home they found another nine kilos of cocaine worth $385,000 in tightly wrapped bricks, along with a small amount of crack, $55,000 in cash and nearly 1.5 kilos of Benzocaine."It's an incredible seizure," said Const. Nick Paulet.Three men, one 24 and the other two 22, face drug trafficking and possession charges.None of the men has a criminal record, and it's not known where the drugs came from, police said. Sgt. Darrin Kruger of the Winnipeg police street crime unit said the Strathcona Street home was not a cocaine production facility, and called the seizure "a little dent" in a much larger problem. "There's a lot more in the city," Kruger added.It's the second publicly-announced cocaine bust by city police in the last two weeks.On Feb. 16, police charged two men after they raided a home on Partridge Avenue.It's believed that house was a cocaine-production facility, as an industrial press to press the drug into bricks was seized along with more than $100,000 worth of the drug, along with marijuana, cash and other drug agents. Neither of the seizures is believed to be linked to organized crime -- which may indicate more people are willing to risk running their own independent drug operations for a piece of the huge profits involved. The sheer number of addicts on the streets is pushing up demand, Kruger said. Brian Paterson of Tamarack, a West Broadway second-stage residential drug treatment centre, said as many as 75 per cent of people coming through their doors are s addicted to cocaine.Paterson said he's seen the use of cocaine and crack become "firmly entrenched" among Tamarack's clients in past years.He said the drugs have taken hold in Winnipeg's inner-city, largely due to how inexpensive and easy to get they are, either on the street or through a "dial-a-dealer."He added cocaine and crack addiction is compounded over generations as addicts have children who become addicted in turn."Over a couple of generations it really adds up," Paterson said.
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