EDMONTON -- Seventeen years after an Edmonton man was kidnapped and severely beaten, Mounties arrested a man wanted on Canada-wide warrants in the case.

On Wednesday, officers from the Stony Plain and Spruce Grove RCMP crime reduction unit executed a search warrant at an Onoway, AB, residence to arrest Benjamin Louis Young, 50.

Young has been wanted by police across the nation since 1995 when an Edmonton man said he was kidnapped and forced to watch his dog shot dead.

Police are calling the arrest a clear example of a criminal's past catching up with him.

"We had absolutely no records in our system on him for 17 years," RCMP Cpl. Colette Zazulak said.
"He was really under the radar for a long time. He didn't have a driver's licence and he wasn't working, so many of the vital statistics, records and information weren't there to help us out."

Zazulak said it was only recently that officers working with Alberta's specialized integrated fugitive apprehension unit were able to get some people to give information on Young's whereabouts.

In addition, officers busting down Young's door on a warrant also made a surprise discovery: a marijuana grow operation supported by two women living at the home.

"They had no idea that there would be a marijuana grow," Zazulak said, adding officers then called in their drug unit to seize the dope.

"We're thrilled that 17 years later, we've been able to put this guy behind bars. These are really serious offences and clearly he's still been engaged in criminal activity."

Police are still working to piece together Young's movement since 1995, when city cops warned the public to be on the lookout for Young. At the time, cops said he was "armed and dangerous."

Officers believed Young was still in Alberta and there would be a "good likelihood" someone would spot Young and report him to police.

That never happened.

In the August 1995 case, an Edmonton man told police he was taken by five men from his downtown apartment building to an acreage near Spruce Grove, Alta.

He was detained there, beaten with several weapons -- including a stick and an engine belt ­-- and forced to watch the men pump round after round of semi-automatic bullets into his three-year-old bull terrier.

The man said he was then let go and he recovered from his injuries at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

But at the end of September 1995, the man reported he was paid a second visit by one of his assailants.

After an argument, the man said he was cut by a knife and his stereo stolen.

In October 1995, city cops charged four men -- Richard William Alexander, Cameron Sherwood Walker, Ricky Germain Boechler and Stephen Eugene George -- with unlawfil confinement, extortion and assault charges.

Police then began the long search for Young, then 33 years old, which concluded Wednesday with his arrest.

Young faces numerous charges including kidnapping, extortion, forcible confinement, aggravated assault, pointing a firearm, robbery, uttering threats, cruelty to animals and assault with a weapon.

Young, and the two women living with him, will also face charges under the Controlled Substances Act.
Young has been taken into custody and has not spoken to bail, police said.

Onoway is approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.