Public Safety and Solicitor General
Courtesy of VicPD (vicpd.ca)
VicPD is recommending multiple drug trafficking charges against a 27-year-old man after a multi-agency investigation resulted in over a million dollars of drugs seized.
VicPD began working on this investigation in mid-October when alerted by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that a large shipment of fentanyl was destined to an address in Victoria from China. CBSA officers were able to intercept this package and in total, CBSA was able to seize 1.45 kilograms of fentanyl. CBSA estimates the value of this seizure to be $400,000.
“This is an excellent example of law enforcement agencies working together to protect British Columbians,” said Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Morris. “Through cooperation and intelligence-sharing, a significant quantity of illicit drugs was intercepted before it could reach the streets of our communities.”
(flickr.com) “The Canada Border Services Agency continues to work very closely with its domestic law enforcement partners, such as the Victoria Police, to protect our communities,” said Director Darlene Klips, CBSA West Coast & Yukon. “We are relentlessly focused on keeping unsafe substances such as fentanyl from entering Canada.”
Considering a lethal dose of fentanyl could be as little as 2 milligrams, there was enough fentanyl in this shipment to cause 725,000 possible overdoses. That’s more than twice the population of the entire Capital Regional District.
The VicPD Strike Force unit conducted an investigation that led them to a residence in Victoria and then subsequently to a residence in Saanich.
At the residence in Saanich, VicPD’s Strike Force officers, in cooperation with the Saanich Police Department, were able to successfully seize a large quantity of drugs that was being prepared for distribution. In total, this seizure included 6,052 individual doses of a heroin/fentanyl mixture, 6.2 kilograms of cocaine both in powder and crack form, and 1.2 kilograms of methamphetamine. VicPD drug experts estimate the street value of these drugs to be $850,000. $8,425 was also seized.
(flickr.com) “VicPD is working on many fronts in the fight against fentanyl,” said A/Chief Manak. “One way we are combatting the opioid crisis is to target the drug traffickers who are preying on some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I am immensely proud of the entire VicPD team that executed this successful operation.”
VicPD would like to thank the various partners involved in this investigation.
