A significant shipment of drugs crossing into the country was flushed out by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) earlier this month. On July 2, CBSA agents stopped a truck coming from California, destined for Vilna, Alta., a village about 150 kilometres northeast of Edmonton best known for its giant mushroom sculptures. The truck driver had declared the shipment as bath tissue, but when CBSA investigated, they “noticed abnormalities in the load.” “Upon further examination, they detected and seized the concealed suspected narcotics from 12 medium-sized moving boxes as well as another smaller box and a duffle bag,” CBSA said in a news release. In total, border agents seized 300 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine and 80 kilograms of suspected cocaine. The driver was arrested and turned over, along with the illegal narcotics, to federal RCMP. “This significant seizure of hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine in Alberta highlights the skill of CBSA officers to stop illegal narcotics and other contraband from breaching our borders,” said Janalee Bell-Boychuk, regional director general of the CBSA’s Prairie Region. Last year, the CBSA made 1,292 seizures of illegal narcotics, which seized a total of 1,054 kilograms of cocaine and 279 kilograms of methamphetamine among other substances.
