Eight tightly wrapped kilogram bricks sit on a table, representing what an organized crime group will smuggle into Edmonton every other day.

Along with 11 half-pound bags of marijuana, the cocaine bricks were seized during a Sunday raid of a home at 166th Avenue and 88th Street. They were displayed Wednesday afternoon at the west-Edmonton headquarters of Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team.

Police said the real coup was the arrest of a "high-ranking member" of an unnamed organized crime group. He was known to police.

"It is a bit of a coup," said Edmonton police Insp. Kevin Galvin, who is on loan to the response team.

"Generally speaking, we don't see high ranking members involved. They insulate themselves quite efficiently." Police are also looking for a second, lower ranking group member Galvin described as "influential. The cocaine bricks have an approximate wholesale value of $46,000 each, he said. Galvin described the seizure as "average," as an organized group can typically transport eight to 10 kilograms of cocaine into Edmonton every day, and on to several other communities in northern Alberta. He estimated it's less than one per cent of cocaine in the city.

"Our job is to focus on the higher level organized crime groups and their processes," said Galvin. There is no named gang affiliation with this seizure, he said, an increasingly frequent pattern. Named groups like the Crazy Dragons have given way to less structured, unnamed groups of 10 to 15 individuals who work together.

Hamid Reza Akbarpour, 24, is charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

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