WEST KELOWNA – A West Kelowna woman is facing charges of trafficking “bath salts” following an RCMP Federal and Serious Organized Crime unit investigation.

The year-long investigation which landed Nicole Marie Hubek, 31, in hot water started in August 2013 when officers with the Canada Border Services Agency intercepted three suspicious packages in the agency’s Vancouver mail. They were being shipped from China and were heading to Kelowna.

RCMP say laboratory testing confirmed the packages contained about 16-kilograms of methylone, a new designer drug known as “bath salts.”

The drug is highly addictive and can be lethal, according to police.

“This charge is the result of a lengthy investigation involving excellent collaboration between our law enforcement agencies,” Insp. Brian Gateley with the Serious Organized Crime unit says in a media release.

“The RCMP and Border Services worked in partnership to successfully prevent a significant quantity of a very dangerous drug from reaching the streets of British Columbia.”

Hubek is being held in custody. She was in court Aug. 28 and will be back before the judge Sept. 20.

To contact the 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.