Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams
2024/25 Annual Report
A Message From
Executive & Government
Superintendent
Chief Executive Officer – Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams
Deputy Premier
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services – Province of Alberta
“ALERT continues to triumph with success in relation to disrupting and dismantling organized and serious crime across the province. This past fiscal year, 2024-25 our specialized teams arrested 484 offenders and laid 1,949 charges in relation to organized crime, drug trafficking, firearms offences, child exploitation, human trafficking.
Our Annual Report shares some of the success stories from the past year and provides a deeper look at what ALERT is doing to deliver on our public safety priorities.”
– Supt. Marc Cochlin, ALERT CEO
“For nearly two decades, Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) have worked tirelessly to protect Albertans. In the past year, the teams’ efforts have resulted in millions of dollars’ worth of illegal fentanyl and other deadly illicit narcotics seized, dangerous drug labs dismantled, hundreds of illegal firearms and weapons taken off our streets and vicious human traffickers, child exploiters and serious offenders caught and brought to justice.
I applaud ALERT on another year of success and meaningful impact and express my sincere gratitude for the selfless commitment of its members on behalf of all Albertans.“
– Hon. Mike Ellis, Deputy Premier of Alberta, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services
Partnering to Keep Alberta Safe
AREAS OF WORK
ALERT Disrupts and dismantles complex organized crime and gang activity.
Explore
Combined Special Forces Enforcement Units are spread across the province in the communities of Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Lloydminster, Medicine Hat, and Red Deer. These integrated teams disrupt and dismantle organized crime, such as drug networks, gang activity, firearms straw-purchasing, and large-scale financial crimes.
ALERT Enhances strategic & tactical intelligence while providing expertise to partner agencies.
Explore
Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta acts as a central hub for strategic analysis and intelligence sharing on organized and serious crime and emerging trends in Alberta.
Training provides policing personnel with the expertise required to successfully investigate serious and organized crime, thereby enhancing capacity of law enforcement across the province.
ALERT Protects Alberta's children from the most dangerous online predators with local to international partners.
Explore
Internet Child Exploitation is an integrated team that investigates the online distribution and making of child sexual abuse materials, online child luring and sextortion, and voyeurism involving victims under the age of 18 through electronic means.
ALERT Intervenes in auto crimes perpetrated by criminal organizations impacting every-day Albertans.
Explore
Auto Crimes integrated units work with industry partners, such as Insurance Bureau of Canada and Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council, to provide a coordinated response to auto theft. Working collaboratively with available intelligence to execute complex investigations into these high-level groups.
ALERT Suppresses human sex trafficking and rescues victims from exploitation.
Explore
Human Trafficking & Counter Exploitation investigates domestic human trafficking involving sexual exploitation occurring in Alberta. The integrated unit also works in collaboration with agencies and organizations involved in rescuing and supporting survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
ALERT facilitates the Provincial Firearms Solutions Lab and uniformed Gang Suppression Teams.
Explore
Provincial Firearms Solutions Lab is a made-in-Alberta response to combating firearms and gang violence by providing best evidence to police and prosecutors to secure convictions on firearms offences.
Firearms Investigations and Gang Suppression Teams were stood up by the Calgary Police Service and the Edmonton Police Service to further support activities aimed at suppressing firearms-related violence in the province. These units remain in situ with their respective agencies while being funded by ALERT.
Partner Agencies • Governance & Oversight
ALERT was established by the provincial government in 2006 to bring together the province’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources to combat organized and serious crime. Integrated teams specialize in the areas of organized crime and gangs, online child exploitation, criminal intelligence, and law enforcement training. Over 400 police and civilian staff work together, and are based in eight communities across the province.
ALERT’s co-operative approach to policing has proven to be an extremely successful model, especially as the criminal landscape evolves and pushes beyond local and regional boundaries. ALERT is a non-profit agency that is governed by a Board of Directors and an appointed Chief Executive Officer. This unique designation allows ALERT to remain arm’s length from the provincial government.
This Year's
Overview
Keeping Drugs off our Streets
Disrupting Organized Crime
Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) is at the forefront of Alberta’s commitment to disrupting organized crime. This year, ALERT’s organized crime teams located and dismantled a fentanyl superlab, believed to be in operation for over two years. ALERT also saw the 16-year sentence delivered to a charged individual in relation to the previously-dismantled Project Essence superlab in 2021.
Drugs Seized
(Est. Street Value; 2024-25)
(2024-25)
Our integrated teams continue to tackle serious and organized crime by bringing together multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Alberta Sheriffs, and each of Alberta’s municipal police services. Organized crime is a sophisticated enterprise that spans throughout jurisdictions and ignores the confines of borders – ALERT’s integrated model, made possible by the Government of Alberta, allows for the disruption and dismantling of the harms and violence rooted in the illicit drug trade.
ALERT has located and dismantled an alleged fentanyl superlab believed to be in operation for at least two years, resulting in the seizure of $700,000 in processed fentanyl, 4,200 L of precursors and 1,500 L of chemical waste.
Nearly $2.5 million in drugs and cash was seized from an Edmonton condo building. CFSEU Edmonton seized cocaine, MDMA, methamphetamine, ketamine, psilocybin mushrooms, oxycodone pills and more.
Six people have been charged in a two-year investigation by ALERT's Grande Prairie organized crime team, resulting in the seizure of firearms, cocaine, buffing agents, illicit opioid pills and illegal steroids.
Drug Seizures (Est. Street Value)
Drug Seizures (Est. Street Value Breakdown)[1]
Suspects Charged[2]
Charges Laid[2]
'Priority in this investigation was to save lives': ALERT shuts down superlab near Valleyview
‘Nothing new:’ Police say fentanyl crackdown existed before tariff threats
5 suspects charged in record-setting $3 million Edmonton drug bust
Fentanyl has changed the landscape of organized crime, putting record profits in the hands of criminals. Meanwhile, indiscriminately killing thousands of Albertans. This all-hands-on deck approach is required. Fentanyl is like no drug crisis law enforcement has ever encountered.
– Insp. Angela Kemp, CFSEU Edmonton
Total Drug Seizures
(Est. Street Value; Since 2006)
(Est. Street Value; 2024-25)
Keeping Alberta Communities Safe
TAKING Guns Off Our Streets
Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) is at the forefront of combatting firearm violence and firearm-related offences perpetrated by organized crime. Due to the illicit nature of criminal networks involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, auto crimes, and money laundering, firearms are a necessary component to the business of these groups, while also being traded as a commodity themselves.
Firearms Seized
(2024-25)
Six firearms were seized alongside more than $300,000 in drugs following an ALERT investigation in Calgary. A total of 46 charges have been laid against five individuals.
Eleven (11) firearms were seized following an investigation by the ALERT Medicine Hat organized crime team, with assistance from the Medicine Hat Police Service (MHPS).
Nine (9) firearms, a large amount of ammunition and a prohibited Kevlar helmet were seized following an investigation by ALERT's Fort McMurray organized crime team.
Firearm Seizures
Gang/Organized Crime Related Homicide Rate[3][4]
Firearm Examinations
(2024-25)
Exhibit Examinations
(2024-25)
(2024-25)
Organized crime is a business and it is a violent business. Firearms are utilized by organized crime groups to protect their business, because they’re dealing with a commodity of drugs. In order to protect their territory, in order to protect themselves, organized crime groups are utilizing firearms and we are seizing more and more of them on an annual basis.
– Insp. Brad Lundeen, ALERT Regional
Firearm Examinations Completed
by Provincial Firearms Lab (2024-25)
Serial Number Restorations Performed
by Provincial Firearms Lab (2024-25)
Preventing Child Exploitation
Keeping Kids Safe Online
ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) teams investigate a range of criminal offences involving the sexual exploitation of children over the internet. ALERT’s ICE units are among the most robust and sophisticated police units in the country – since 2018, we’ve processed over 22,000,000 child sexual abuse material (CSAM) photos/videos. This year we broke record again, taking in over 5,871 case files and actively rescuing 178 children across Alberta being abused and exploited by dangerous predators.
Case File Intakes
(2024-25)
Children Rescued
(2024-25)
The number of file intakes has increased 54% since last year and has increased 377% from 2018 to 2024.
ALERT has an invaluable role in the investigation and intervention of online child sexual exploitation. The unit works diligently to investigate a range of criminal offences involving child pornography, any computer-related child sexual abuse and child luring over the internet. This leads investigators to identifying suspects and making arrests, while simultaneously protecting children. In an effort to educate and prevent future cases of online exploitation, the ICE unit has also established a community engagement team in 2024. This team travels throughout Alberta, providing education and knowledge in an effort to help children, teens and parents learn about real-life examples of the dangers online.
Project Steel was an extensive nationwide and coordinated joint operation led by the OPP, SQ, and RCMP’s NCECC. It brought together 63 law enforcement partners across Canada, including ALERT and led to the arrest of 106 individuals.
ALERT ICE received information from the NCECC, as well as Europol and the Bavarian State Criminal Police in Germany, that an Edmonton man was accessing one of the largest online platforms for sharing child sexual abuse material in the world.
ICE was contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in May 2024 after learning that a Calgary man allegedly asked the teen for sexually explicit images and videos, and then began threatening to share them online.
Case File Intakes
Suspects Charged
Charges Laid
Devices
Child Rescues
Alberta agencies work to educate public amid rise of online child sexual exploitation
Alberta’s Internet Child Exploitation Unit: How police across the province are collaborating to catch predators
Strathcona County mother sentenced to 13.5 years for sexual assault, making child pornography
If you can save a child, it’s very rewarding. At the end of the night, you’re proud of the job that you did. You can truly say you’ve changed a child’s life. Children are one of our most vulnerable aspects of society. So, you have to do it
CSAM Photos/Videos Processed
(Since 2018)
(Since 2018)
Protecting Vulnerable Persons
Stopping Human Trafficking
Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) swiftly identifies and investigates human sex trafficking cases in the province of Alberta, leveraging its integrated model to rescue and support victims of exploitation with the help of social workers and safety network coordinators embedded directly within our counter-exploitation teams. Continued funding from the Government of Alberta – which helps bring together municipal, provincial and federal partners within our model – allows us to stop violent criminals from recruiting, preying and manipulating vulnerable individuals susceptible to sexual exploitation.
Victim Interventions
(2024-25)
Victim Supports
(2024-25)
This year, our efforts and results showcase the intrinsic links that exist between sex trafficking, gangs and violence, while also reinforcing the need for a multi-jurisdictional approach to target traffickers.
Safety Network Coordinators are focused on building relationships and trust-supporting with the victims. These teams are dedicated to providing support for human trafficking survivors by removing barriers towards exiting the sex industry, safety planning, and facilitating access to community support services. Survivors are oftentimes identified through ALERT criminal investigations against their perpetrators, however, traditionally the victims lacked the vital link to support services.
Three men have been arrested following an ALERT investigation and stand accused of running a human trafficking operation that stretched across Canada; operating throughout Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Quebec.
A Montreal man has been arrested by ALERT in collaboration with Quebec law enforcement for suspected human trafficking offences in Alberta. The suspect is an alleged member of the “FSO” gang.
A Calgary woman has been rescued from the sex trade and her perpetrator has been charged with human trafficking related offences. The suspect allegedly targeted newcomers to Canada and lured them into the sex trade.
Suspects Charged
Charges Laid
Victim Interventions
Québec man arrested after trying to force two women into Calgary sex trade
Ride along: Covert police mission aims to free sex trafficking victims
Man who forced homeless Edmonton woman into sex trade sentenced to 5 1/2 years
The targets of Project Endgame have been involved in human trafficking across Canada for upwards of a decade. The investigation showed us that these targets are very violent – they’re willing to do almost anything to the victims to keep control of them.
– S/Sgt. Chris Hayes, ALERT Human Trafficking
Victim Interventions
(Since 2020)
Suspects Charged
(Since 2020)
Integrated Policing
Supporting our Partners
Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) supports our partner agencies and integrated investigative teams through criminal intelligence data and products, law enforcement training courses, and through the Gang Suppression Teams.
Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta (CISA) receives, analyzes and distributes criminal intelligence among its provincial members and to its national counterparts. It is one of ten provincial bureaus which form Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC), the national network of local, provincial and federal police and law-enforcement agencies dedicated to fighting organized crime.
ALERT’s training section enhances law enforcement capacity by providing relevant and specialized courses and learning opportunities in the area of serious and organized crime.
Integrated Gang Enforcement Teams are the province’s visible, uniformed gang enforcement element that engage with communities across the province to prevent firearm and gang violence. These units remain in situ with their Calgary Police Service and Edmonton Police Service while being funded by ALERT.
In order to fight organized crime, you have to use intelligence. The landscape for organized crime is ever evolving. It is constantly changing and police have to constantly adapt to those changes to make sure we stay one step ahead.
– Insp. Paul Gregory, CISA
Intelligence Reports
(2024-25)
Candidates Trained
(2024-25)
Suspects Charged (Gang
Suppression Teams, 2024-25)
Funding • Budget • Operations
Financial Summary
Funding for ALERT demonstrates the continued commitment towards stemming the flow of fentanyl, getting guns out of the hands of drug dealers, putting child sexual abusers behind bars, and stopping human trafficking. The Alberta Government’s budget has once again demonstrated an investment in keeping Alberta communities safe.
– Supt. Marc Cochlin, ALERT Chief Executive Officer
Operating Budget
(2024-25)
Positions
Loading..........
The Data is Not Available
Loading..........
The Data is Not Available
[1] “Other Substances” is the cumulative estimated street value of all other drugs (not listed) seized by ALERT in the reporting period. This includes: MDMA (Ecstasy), Psilocybin (mushrooms), Phenacetin, Oxycodone, Cannabis, Cannabis Resin, Steroids, Morphine, Percocet, Tobacco, LSD, Trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) / Benzylpiperazine (BZP).
[2] Data provided in Suspects Charged and Charges Laid charts under Disrupting Organized Crime reflects suspect and charge figures resulting from all ALERT organized crime investigations, irrespective of whether drug were seized. However, most ALERT investigations result in drug seizures.
[3] Data provided by outside agency. ALERT takes no responsibility for accuracy/reliability of data. Data is included to illustrate trends, not to reflect specific occurrences. Reporting limitations: it may not be appropriate to extrapolate data as representative to explain criminal activity prevalence, as true figures may in fact be lower or higher.
[4] Statistics Canada: Number, percentage and rate of gang-related homicide victims – learn more.
Copyright © 2025 Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams. All Rights Reserved.
