April 7, 2021

Massive Opium Bust at Port of Vancouver

Police officers and and border officers have seized nearly $8 million worth of opium from shipping containers at the Port of Vancouver. Prior to the seizure, police swapped out the opium from the two containers before tracking decoy shipment to its destination where they arrested five suspects.

Authorities disclosed the operation on Monday, more than six weeks after the February 11th opium bust at Vancouver’s Deltaport — the largest container terminal in Canada. 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.

Officers found 2,500 packages of suspected opium weighing a combined 2,204 pounds, the RCMP and CBSA said in statements. The CA$10 million ($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, British Columbia.

(Source: Freight Waves)