Massive Prairie meth bust likely to lead to other problems, activist warns

Outreach workers will be watching to see the impact on the streets after the largest drug seizure in Prairie history of 406 kilograms of meth, the equivalent to roughly four million illicit doses of the drug.

The truck driver, 29-year-old Komalpreet Sidhu from Winnipeg, will appear in court Thursday. He has been charged with importing methamphetamine and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The Canada Border Services Agency discovered the drugs in a semi-trailer at the southwestern Manitoba-North Dakota border station at Boissevain on Jan 14, a seizure the police called “extraordinary.”

Police say the drugs, trafficked from the United States, were bound for Winnipeg with a street value worth more than $50 million.

“Will this make a dent? We don’t know.” Mitch Bourbonniere, with Winnipeg’s Downtown Community Safety Partnership, told CTV News.

“I think for every seizure, even as big as this one, there are so much more drugs coming in.”

On the streets of Winnipeg, meth is still one of the most commonly used drugs, along with opioids, like fentanyl.

‘Trickle down to street level’

In Western Manitoba, the Brandon Police Service made another large seizure of fentanyl on Jan. 25, worth an estimated $1 million.

“That’s meth on one side, fentanyl on the other. How that’s going to trickle down to street level is yet to be determined.“ Bourbonniere said, adding less accessibility to meth may lead users to turn to pharmaceuticals or alcohol and solvents.

Meth is a highly addictive stimulant which can lead to severe health problems, including rapid heart rate and increased blood pressure. Long term, users can experience psychosis, leading to violent behaviour, hallucinations, delusions or paranoia.

A 2020 University of Manitoba study found over the last decade methamphetamine use has been rising in Manitoba, leading to a sevenfold increase in Winnipeg emergency room visits.

Insp. Joe Telus, with RCMP federal policing, said the seized drugs were likely to be sold beyond Manitoba.

“The origin and size of the shipment leads us to believe this involved organized crime at a local, national and international level,” Telus told a news conference on Wednesday, “While destined for Winnipeg we also believe (the drugs) would’ve been distributed across Manitoba and possibly to locations across Western Canada and into Ontario.”

While police and border officials work to find the drugs, Bourbonniere says all levels of government need to be more involved in finding solutions to help those who are addicted and struggling.

“We need to support people who do have addiction in terms of finding a different way. Treatment, rapid-access to treatment, housing, all of these things intersect…and I don’t feel like we are keeping up at all.”