West Kelowna warehouse raided by police was lacing drugs with Fentanyl

WEST KELOWNA – As students at Neil Bruce Middle School were boarding buses to go home, just two blocks away RCMP investigators were combing through a warehouse they say was being used to distribute Fentanyl to the community.

Just after noon on March 2 the police, West Kelowna Fire Rescue and amublances were outside Kandy and Krome Kustoms on Auburn Road. RCMP Const. Jesse O'Donaghey says several individuals were arrested in the days before and after a search warrant at the building was executed.

Investigators found what they believe to be the highly potent painkiller Fentanyl, which has been linked to a recent rise in overdoses across the Okanagan.

"I believe they were just altering other drugs, basically lacing other drugs with the Fentanyl," he says. 

Members of the hazmat team spent all afternoon removing items from the warehouse and O'Donaghey says they plan to release the quantities of drugs seized later today.

The investigation is still ongoing but there is not believed to be any direct link to the two bodies that were found in the area of Shannon Way and Westville Way earlier in the day.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.