This past weekend’s Boonstock Music and Arts Festival ushered in an estimated 12,000 people per day, and a number of those attendees ended up having brushes with the law.
An amped up police presence at the four-day festival in Gibbons resulted in 2,000 verbal warnings from RCMP for unlawful liquor consumption and 56 arrests, one of which included 19 charges against a 23-year-old Edmonton man.
On Sunday, RCMP arrested three males and one female after intercepting a suspected drug deal on the Boonstock campgrounds. They subsequently seized a loaded semi-automatic handgun, a large bear-spray canister, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and ecstasy.
Justin Connors of Edmonton faces 19 charges in relation to the incident, including five counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, three counts of breaching probation, possession of a prohibited weapon and other weapons charges. The 23-year-old man will appear in Morinville Provincial Court on July 4.
Two men were also charged over the weekend with breaking and entering into an area residence on Saturday night.
In total, RCMP dealt with 11 overdose calls, 11 traffic complaints, three impaired driving complaints, two sexual assaults, two hit and run complaints, 11 assaults including assaults with a weapon, four theft complaints, 55 liquor complaints and made 45 illicit drug seizures.
