Province looks to seize notorious drug den

Provincial justice officials are trying to seize a Dominion Street drug den that has been the source of trouble in the West End for years.

The owner of 982 Dominion St., 45-year-old Robert Edward Johnson, was most recently arrested in June along with several others after a lengthy Winnipeg Police investigation into thefts and illicit drug sales connected to the house.

“The residence has a reputation within the neighbourhood as being a location where individuals habitually attend for the purpose of purchasing and/or consuming controlled substances,” reads a statement of claim filed by the province’s director of civil forfeiture in the Court of King’s Bench last week.

“For several years, the residence has been associated with criminal activity, violence, and disorder, resulting in numerous police attendances and complaints from members of the surrounding community.”

The civil forfeiture claim seeks to allow provincial officials to seize title to the property due to it being used for alleged unlawful activity.

Officials allege Johnson has used the house to store and sell drugs himself and permitted several other people to hang out, reside at or temporarily stay there to purchase, use and sell drugs.

Johnson has also allowed stolen property to be stored at the home and to be sold or exchanged for illicit substances, officials say.

“The neighbourhood is adversely affected by the unlawful activity that is habitually occurring at the residence,” the lawsuit says.

Winnipeg Police received “numerous complaints” from area residents about crimes connected to the house in May 2025, including frequent foot traffic and numerous short visits from people that the neighbours suspected were either buying or using drugs, the filing says.

Between November 2024 and June 2026, police received calls about the house or visited it on approximately 43 occasions.

Between June 5 and 9 last year, officers witnessed 134 instances of people entering or exiting the home typically for a short period of time, and on one occasion, saw a hand-to-hand transaction at the front door. Police believed the activity was related to drug trafficking.

Police began a formal investigation into Johnson’s alleged drug trafficking at the house in September last year.

The court filing says between Jan. 1 and March 19 this year, police were called to the house eight times, including four times for incidents involving guns or violence.

On March 22, police used their first search warrant to raid the house. Officers found Johnson and seven other people there.

Police found about 171 grams of fentanyl, drug packaging and other trafficking materials, two lockpick sets, a restricted handgun, ammunition and other weapons, including machetes, airsoft pistols, nunchucks, a cattle prod and bear spray.

Some of the people found at the house told investigators that they either lived or temporarily stayed there and that people took drugs there, the court papers claim.

Johnson was charged with several drug-trafficking and weapons offences and released by police on an undertaking. But criminal activity continued at the house, the court filing says.

Between March 22 and June 18, police were called to the house four more times for incidents involving suspicious activity, a stolen vehicle, weapons and theft, the court papers say.

Investigators also linked the home to other criminal activity, including two break-ins at a River Heights home in early June this year — coins, jewellery and a chequebook were stolen — and an incident in which someone had used a gun to prevent a man from leaving the home sometime between June 21 and 22, police said in June.

Johnson was arrested when he was leaving the home on June 22 and charged with several more drug trafficking, weapons and stolen property offences. He was held in custody.

In the early evening that day, tactical officers and community support investigators executed a second warrant on the house and ten people were inside.

Police found three people suffering from apparent drug overdoses outside and the officers gave them first aid until paramedics arrived, then executed the warrant.

Officers seized several weapons and found about 100 grams of fentanyl, four grams of methamphetamine and drug-trafficking paraphernalia.

Several electric bicycles and mountain bikes, jewellery, electronics, two cartons of untaxed cigarettes, a point-of-sale payment device and several auto mechanic diagnostic tablets that they believe were either stolen or are related to drug sales were also seized.

Items stolen from the River Heights home were among the goods recovered, police said at the time.

Three other men and six women were arrested and all face gun, drug and other charges, police said in June.

But police have continued to receive complaints about the home, despite Johnson being in provincial jail awaiting criminal court proceedings, the lawsuit says.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca