Police Track Massive Opium Shipment To A Surrey Warehouse And Arrest Five People!

Police and border officers tracked $10 million worth of opium to a Surrey warehouse after it arrived at Vancouver’s Delta Port and arrested five men but one escaped. There is much speculation in the local South Asian community that the men arrested are South Asians but police have not yet identified the suspects by name. Sources have told DESIBUZZCanada that it is a local Cash and Carry store connected to the massive drug bust but we are still confirming the information regarding those who have been arrested, which include one man from Vancouver and four from Ontario.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff With News Files

SURREY -Police and border officers tracked $10 million worth of opium to a Surrey warehouse after it arrived at Vancouver’s Delta Port and arrested five men but one escaped.

There is much speculation in the local South Asian community that the men arrested are South Asians but police have not yet identified the suspects by name. Sources have told DESIBUZZCanada that it is a local Cash and Carry store connected to the massive drug bust but we are still confirming the information regarding those who have been arrested which include one man from Vancouver and four from Ontario.

After seizing nearly the massive opium found in shipping containers at Port of Vancouver, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP officials swapped out the drugs with a dummy substance and followed the shipment to a warehouse where they arrested five suspects.

Authorities disclosed the operation on Monday, more than six weeks after the Feb. 11 opium bust at Vancouver’s Deltaport — the largest container terminal in Canada — and after months of investigation. There, officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit and Canada Border Services Agency served a warrant on two shipping containers that had arrived from overseas, reported FreightWaves.

Officers found 2,500 packages of suspected opium weighing a combined 2,204 pounds, the RCMP and CBSA said in statements. The $10 million US ($7.9 million) bust represented one of the largest opium seizures recorded by the CBSA.

Officers seized the drugs and replaced it with a placebo to allow the probe to continue “without further risk to Canadians.”

With the opium swapped out, officers followed the shipment as it was transported to a warehouse in nearby Surrey. 

“If it was just seized and nothing was done to follow it, it would have been difficult to build a case,” RCMP Sgt. Kris Clark, a spokesperson for the Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit, told FreightWaves.

Clark declined to divulge how the opium shipment was transported to the warehouse. But in all likelihood, it happened via truck.

Officers arrested five suspects at the warehouse, while a sixth escaped. 

“Anytime there’s going to be multiple people arrested, it’s a very dynamic situation, he said.

Authorities have not released the identities of the suspects, who have not been charged. They include four men from Ontario and one from Vancouver. 

Clark would not say whether those arrested included warehouse workers and truck drivers. Other details being held back including the origin of the shipment and the vessel it came from.

Opium is collected from the milky fluid that seeps from cuts made to immature opium poppies. It can be used in its raw form or processed into heroin and other opioids.

“The RCMP takes very seriously any substance that threatens the safety and security of Canadians,” said RCMP FSOC Supt. Richard Bergevin.

The RCMP says an opium seizure this large is rare as heroin and fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is fuelling Canada’s continuing overdose crisis, are far more commonly seized by police due to their increased potencies compared with opium.

The Port of Vancouver is Canada’s busiest port.

News Files courtesy FreightWaves