Police in British Columbia say they have made numerous arrests and taken approximately $300,000 worth of fentanyl and other drugs off the streets.
New Westminster Police Acting Sgt. Jeff Scott called the drug bust “very significant.”
“We’re part of a multi-pronged approach in trying to stop this opioid crisis in the province,” he told reporters gathered at a press conference Monday.
“This poses a high risk to the public, to public safety, and we want to get out in front of it,” he said.
In addition to the drugs, police say they seized a number of vehicles, a large quantity of cash, multiple firearms and replica firearms.
Police say the investigation spanned several months and also involved Surrey RCMP, Delta Police Department, the Canadian Border Services Agency, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia and the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team.
Police are seeking charges for multiple counts of trafficking in a controlled substance and multiple counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, they say. They have not named the suspects.
In 2016, 992 British Columbians died from an illicit drug overdose and the opioid drug fentanyl was detected in 60 per cent of those cases, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control.
With a report from CTV Vancouver
