Five suspects in Chilliwack-based drug ring face 50 weapons, trafficking charges

VANCOUVER – A drug trafficking investigation that has stretched across British Columbia since 2014 has now produced dozens more charges.

A release from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, which targets organized crime in B.C., says 50 charges have been laid against five men, all from Chilliwack.

That’s in addition to charges laid last year against three of five people arrested in February 2015, after police smashed a drug-distribution network operating between the Fraser Valley and northeastern B.C.

The CFSEU says arms, cash and $5 million worth of illegal drugs, including potentially deadly fentanyl, have been seized in several busts since the ring was first identified in 2014.

A total of 13 trafficking charges have now been laid against three men, ranging in age from 22 to 26, while two others, aged 23 and 25, each face 12 counts of possessing a prohibited device and multiple counts of trafficking.

One of the men is currently in custody on unrelated charges in Alberta, court dates are already set for two more, one has turned himself in to RCMP and an arrest warrant has been issued for another.