RCMP national drug squad warns BC a leader in global drug trade

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Standing in front of a rainbow array of drugs seized from a British Columbia-based "super-lab," the RCMP federal drug squad issued a warning Thursday: Canada has become a major source for the global drug trade and B.C. is the leader of the pack.

 

Insp. Brian Cantera, of the RCMP federal drug enforcement branch, said ecstasy, marijuana and cocaine produced in Canada are increasingly making their way around the world.

 

"This is going and being distributed worldwide," Cantera said before the backdrop of more than 200 kilograms of ecstasy pills seized last week from the drug lab in suburban Richmond.

 

And B.C. is the leading drug-producing province in Canada, Cantera said.

 

He said policing agencies worldwide say they are seizing sizeable amounts of drugs originating in the province.

 

Thursday's news conference came a week after the province's largest-ever ecstasy bust, which netted one million tablets from the drug "super-lab" in Richmond, B.C.

 

Five people have been arrested in the case.

 

Cantera said organized crime groups active in B.C. are earning extreme profits off the world drug trade and there are continuing international investigations involving drugs coming out of the province.

 

In December, police announced a crackdown on an organized crime drug manufacturing and distribution ring operating primarily from Vancouver.

 

The investigation involved police from Australia, the United States, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, India and China and more than 100 people were arrested worldwide.

 

Cantera said the Richmond lab also contained more than 100 kilograms of "pure crystalized ecstasy," as well as the massive number of pressed tablets.

 

The lab's pill presses were capable of producing 8,000-12,000 pills an hour. There were also automatic firearms at the lab, police said.

 

"We can say confidently that the seizure is a significant advancement in combatting organized crime in British Columbia," Chief Supt. Bob Harriman, the RCMP's head of federal criminal investigations for B.C., told reporters.

 

Harriman said the drug economy is emerging "at the expense of innocent victims across British Columbia at an enormous risk to the public."

 

The Richmond bust June 20 was the latest in a string of almost daily drug raids in the province.

 

On Wednesday, the Surrey RCMP auto theft unit found a methamphetamine lab while executing a search warrant. The lab was about 100 metres from a school.

 

A routine Vancouver police call June 1 ended with the bust of a meth lab and the arrest of a man police say is a well-known to them.

 

Earlier in May, a man and woman were arrested in the sleepy Interior town of Lumby and charged with large-scale manufacturing of crystal meth.

 

Marijuana grow-ops are raided regularly yet police cannot keep up with the pace of production.

 

Harriman said the issue requires the co-operation of all levels of government, all enforcement agencies and the public.

 

He called for tougher regulations on the precursor chemicals used to manufacture drugs. Other countries have stricter regulations, so the lack of tough rules in Canada are an "Achilles heel when it comes to producing this particular product with greater ease."

 

Harriman said the investigators in the Richmond case had to don full hazmat protection suits.

 

He said the labs contain not only volatile substances but have the potential to spell "environmental disaster" for the surrounding areas.

 

"The environmental damage in this investigation is indisputable," Cantera said. "There would appear to be evidence of soil contamination."

 

The lab was located next to the Fraser River and a conservation area.

Author: ?

Date: 27/06/08

Source: The Canadian Press

Copyright: Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press