Oxford — The famous landmark of Oxford, N.S. that greets visitors as they pull into the Main Street Irving was arrested and charged on multiple counts of cocaine possession, trafficking and human trafficking in the early morning of Oct. 3.
“We are also considering a charge of resisting arrest,” said Sgt. Francoise Goddard of Oxford RCMP. “In the end, it took a dozen officers and a crane to remove him from the scene.”
While highway visitors expressed shock, the arrest came as no surprise to residents of Oxford, who had purportedly been living in fear for some time.
Margaret Wentworth is a grandmother of two and works part-time at the Main Street Irving.
“I’d always ask, ‘Hey what’s that white stuff on your face?’ and he’d be like ‘Oh, this? It’s just bird shit.’ So I’d be like ‘Yeah, sure buddy. Meanwhile the bird shit was on the other side of your face an hour ago.’”
Andrew Stafford works for the municipality and was tasked with cleaning the blueberry on a monthly basis. “He made me feel uncomfortable, for sure. His eyes… they’d follow you everywhere.”
The investigation into the Oxford blueberry was initially launched in 2014, stemming from allegations of corruption, according to Sgt. Goddard.
“An anonymous source informed us that there was a kingpin in the city who was importing and exploiting workers in the blueberry fields and undercutting the market for himself. Weeks later our source mysteriously disappeared and we were forced to piece it all together ourselves. We made the move on the cocaine charges because there was, we felt, an imminent threat to the safety of another anonymous source.”
The blueberry is expected to make his first appearance in court Oct. 10.
John Bragg’s gotta go.