Nanaimo RCMP have seized “a significant amount” of drugs, firearms and stolen property from a home on Prospect Drive in the Yellow Point area and a home on Harewood Road in Nanaimo.
The Vancouver Island Emergency Response Team was called in to enter both homes on Dec. 4, and the RCMP’s clandestine lab team was also involved in the searches. The bomb disposal unit was also required after a pipe bomb was discovered at the Prospect Drive home, according to an update provided by the Nanaimo RCMP on Dec. 11.
“The drug warrants executed are the culmination of a detachment-wide effort to address a group of offenders causing significant harm in our community,” Superintendent Mark Fisher, Officer in Charge of the Nanaimo RCMP, said in the press release. “It takes a significant amount of investigative effort from both our front-line uniform officers and plainclothes investigative units to get us to the stage where warrants can be obtained to enter these properties, and [we can] disrupt their illegal activities. We are very pleased with the results from our investigation. For me personally, most satisfying was seeing the support we received from neighbours in the area whose lives have been disrupted by the activity associated with these illegal activities.”
Nanaimo RCMP spokesman Const. Gary O’Brien says police have been investigating these two homes for several months.
The investigation, led by the Nanaimo RCMP Projects Team, resulted in the seizure of guns, drugs and stolen property from the Prospect Drive home. As well, the bomb disposal unit safely detonated a homemade bomb found inside the house.
Police seized two loaded handguns with ammunition, one silencer and two cross bows from the home and found 400 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 650 grams of MDMA, a “small amount” of crack cocaine and 250 grams of powder cocaine.
Police also found a stolen Bobcat, motorcycle, snow blower, three generators and chain saws.
Heroin, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine and oxytocin pills were seized from the Harewood Road home, as well as steroids, Ativan and ecstasy, scales, baggies, cellphones and money counters.
“The RCMP Clandestine lab members were active at both locations, dismantling and removing four industrial-size barrels of GHB and other chemicals used in the production of GHB,” O’Brien stated in the release. “These chemicals will be stored at the RCMP Clandestine lab facility in the Lower Mainland and will be later analyzed.”
As of Dec. 15, charges are pending against two males, aged 36 and 39. The 36-year-old male was released on a Promise to Appear on drug charges, with a court date set for March 31. O’Brien says that, as of Dec. 15, police have not yet located the 39-year-old male.
Five other adults were detained during the searches but are not facing any charges.
RCMP will release the names of the accused when formal charge approval has been completed.
