A woman who is suing the Whitehorse Housing Authority and the director of crime prevention for what she calls an unfair eviction under Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) legislation was arrested on drug charges last Friday night.

Karen Nicloux, 43, along with Xaio Wen, 45, was taken into custody at 10 p.m. Friday near Hamilton Boulevard in the Granger subdivision.

One and half grams of crack cocaine were seized during the arrest, according to an RCMP press release.

Police charged Wen with trafficking cocaine.

They arrested Nicloux at the same time and charged her with possession for the purpose trafficking.

The charges indicate that Wen is suspected of selling the drugs to Nicloux, who is suspected of intending to sell them to others.

Both women were scheduled to appear in court today.

The arrest and charge could put an end to a civil suit Nicloux launched in Yukon Supreme Court earlier this month.

Nicloux, who lives in the Whitehorse Housing Authority complex on Thompson Road in Granger, was served with an eviction notice on April 9.

The notice came after an investigation by SCAN officers which documented 30 comings and goings from Nicloux's house over three days.

According to SCAN investigator Kenneth Putnam, he spoke to Nicloux a month before serving the eviction notice.

He warned her that several known drug users and dealers - including the former residents of 810 Wheeler St. - were seen going in and out of her home on a regular basis.

Putnam said Nicloux denied she was selling drugs or people were using in her house, and blamed the traffic on her 19-year-old daughter.

But complaints from neighbours kept coming, so SCAN set up a surveillance van on Thompson Road.

During the first three days of April, SCAN personnel documented 30 people coming and going from the house, the majority of them staying only a few minutes.

Then, on April 7, Nicloux was arrested and charged with possessing cocaine.

Police reported that when Nicloux was approached by an officer in the alley behind Hanna Crescent in the McIntyre subdivision, she dropped two bags which contained 13 grams of cocaine, separated into 0.3 grams "flaps", and "baggies" weighing between two and seven grams.

Nicloux was arrested and released. She has not entered a formal plea but said she is innocent.

Two days later, the SCAN officers arrived at Nicloux's door with an eviction notice, signed by the manager of the Whitehorse Housing Authority.

After serving her with the notice - which gave her until April 20 to get out - they placed a number of fluorescent green notices around the neighbourhood, announcing the presence of a drug dealer in the area.

By the end of the day, Nicloux - with the help of a legal aid lawyer - had filed documents in Yukon Supreme Court asking that the eviction order be thrown out and that SCAN and the housing authority pay any related legal fees.

"The plaintiff has not used her residence, either habitually or otherwise, for (selling or using drugs). The plaintiff does not use or sell drugs in her house or elsewhere," Nicloux claims in the court documents.

SCAN officers reported the notices around Nicloux's house had been taken down that same day.

Justice Earl Johnson heard Nicloux's case last Friday but reserved his judgment for 60 days, halting the eviction order until then.

Fewer than 12 hours after the hearing, Nicloux was arrested on a charge of drug trafficking.

Nicloux is in police custody and was unavailable for comment on her case.

Officials from the Department of Justice said they could not comment while the case is being decided by Johnson.