A drug sting carried out in November and December by Campbell River RCMP has led to charges being approved for 10 people and recommended for 10 more.
Drugs seized in the operation are fentanyl, carfentanil, heroin, morphine, cocaine and methamphetamine.
“This investigation shows we are not looking at drugs that are contaminated with fentanyl in town,” said Campbell River RCMP Const. Maury Tyre. “People are knowingly requesting and distributing fentanyl. What is very concerning is the appearance of carfentanil in tested drug samples.”
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and carfentil — which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl — have been tied to spikes in overdose deaths, with fentanyl detected in 84 per cent of illicit drug-overdose deaths in B.C. in 2017.
The Campbell River operation was dubbed E-Parody and was initiated by the Street Crimes Unit. It looked at various levels of drug trafficking in the Campbell River area.
Charges include trafficking in a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking. Nine of those charged so far are from Campbell River and one is from Surrey.
“Through the collaborative effort of a number of units within the RCMP detachment, E-Parody was a huge success,” said Campbell River RCMP Insp. Jeff Preston. jwbell@timescolonist.com
