Police disrupt ‘large-scale’ drug trafficking operation in ‘intense’ Surrey investigation

The RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit held a news conference Thursday to show off the large seizure. (CTV News)

Police in Surrey have seized more than 56 kilograms of drugs and cutting agents and more than $1 million worth of property in what they call “an intense, six-month investigation.”

The RCMP Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit began the investigation in February by looking into an “illicit drug line” that they believed was supplying “street-level quantities of fentanyl and cocaine.”

Instead, the investigation uncovered a “large-scale, sophisticated drug operation,” which was allegedly supplying “large volumes of illicit drugs throughout the province,” the RCMP SPOSU said in a news release Thursday.

Mounties also held a news conference Thursday morning to show off the items seized during a Sept. 10 search of a home in Surrey’s Guildford neighbourhood.

While executing the search warrant with the help of the heavily armed Lower Mainland Integrated Emergency Response Team, police found “processing and packaging equipment” in one of the home’s basement level suites.

Four people were arrested and investigators seized the following amounts of drugs and cutting agents, police said.

• 24 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine
• nine kilograms of suspected fentanyl
• 7.5 kilograms of suspected caffeine
• 7.6 kilograms of suspected buffing agent
• three kilograms of suspected crack cocaine
• 2.6 kilograms of suspected cocaine
• two kilograms of suspected benzodiazepine

Among the more than $1 million in assets police seized were two pickup trucks, two SUVs, a car, a motorhome, two “quads,” two jet-skis and one “off-road side by side vehicle,” along with roughly $54,000 in cash.

“This drug seizure represents a significant disruption to the local drug trade in Surrey,” said Supt. Ryan Element, a community services officer for the RCMP SPOSU, in the release.

“Investigators believe the suspected drugs were being supplied to communities from the Lower Mainland right into the Okanagan.”

Charges have not yet been laid. Investigators are working on “a comprehensive report” for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to consider for charge approval, police said.

“Surrey Provincial Operations Support Unit is committed to seeing the seizures of large-scale drug operations within the City of Surrey,” said Chief Supt. Wendy Mehat, the officer in charge of the RCMP SPOSU, in the release.

“This is an example of the strong collaboration of multiple drug section and major crime officers assigned to supporting Surrey Police Service operations in the city.”