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Action on six B.C. gas-related bombings Royal Canadian Mounted Police search property, interrogate and release; say new evidence will be submitted to prosecutors Gary Park For Petroleum News
An arrest, 10 hours of interrogation, about 150 officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police scouring a 750-acre property in northwestern Alberta, talk of a possible extortion charge — everything pointed to a breakthrough in an 18-month investigation into six natural gas-related bombings in northeastern British Columbia.
Operating under a five-day search warrant, the RCMP descended Jan. 8 on five homes and 14 outbuildings on the rural compound of former religious leader and convicted oil patch bomber Wiebo Ludwig and about 50 followers.
They took Ludwig into custody, grilled him and released him without charge.
RCMP Inspector Tim Shields said Jan. 9 that new evidence will be submitted to government prosecutors, but conceded that the prosecutors don’t agree with the RCMP that there are “reasonable and sufficient grounds” to lay charges.
Ludwig told his attorney Paul Moreau he expected to be charged with extortion.
RCMP ‘trail of evidence’ The RCMP said only that they have “followed a trail of evidence that ultimately led to the execution of the search warrant.”
Shields told reporters he was “not about to say what it is we’ve found and I’m not even saying we found it on this property.”
He said the RCMP was compelled to arrest Ludwig “out of an obligation to provide public safety,” but would not say whether the RCMP suspected an imminent attack, adding to the six explosions on EnCana properties over the October 2008-July 2009 period.
EnCana has posted a C$1 million cash reward — double its original offer — for information directly leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the bombings.
Six explosions “We have had six explosions so far,” Shields said. “They were becoming increasingly dangerous.
“We are satisfied we made the arrest at the right time, for the right reasons and with the right amount of legal justification,” he said.
“Everything that has happened over the past three days is advancing this case and getting us closer to the finish line,” said Shields.
Anonymous letters were sent to local newspapers last year warning of further attacks.
Ludwig spent 18 months in jail on five charges of bombings of Alberta oil and gas facilities in the 1990s.
He has made repeated claims that the health of his family members and livestock have suffered from gas-well drilling, flaring and industry-related activities near his properties.
While denying he has been involved in the latest bombings, he said on Jan. 10 he is concerned that those “who are being abused by the industry are neglected.”
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