REAL SCOOP: Surrey RCMP dismantle drug lab linked to gang
Credit to Author: Kim Bolan| Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 01:43:05 +0000
Surrey RCMP announced the seizure of major amounts of drugs and several firearms at a drug lab they say is linked to the BK. No charges yet.
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Surrey RCMP arrested two men linked to the Brothers Keepers gang at a South Surrey drug lab last week where police also seized large quantities of fake Oxycontin, Percocet and heroin pills plus seven semi-automatic firearms.
Const. Richard Wright said Thursday that neither man has yet been charged, but that the investigation is continuing.
“The initial investigation has identified connections to the Lower Mainland gang conflict and, in particular, the Brothers Keepers crime group,” he said.
The Brothers Keepers have been locked in a bloody war with rivals from the break-away Kang group, as well as gangsters associated with the United Nations gang.
The Brothers Keepers were close to Hardside Hells Angel Suminder “Ali” Grewal, who was shot to death as he sat in his Dodge Viper in a Surrey Starbucks drive-thru two weeks ago.
Wright said that the Surrey RCMP Drug Section executed a search warrant on a residence in the 16300-block of 14A Avenue on Aug. 6.
Both Surrey’s Gang Enforcement Team and the Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit’s Clandestine Lab Enforcement and Response Team were also part of the raid.
Police found 63,000 doses of fake OxyContin pills, 94,000 doses of fake Percocet pills, 5,000 doses of suspected cocaine, 22,500 doses of fake heroin and 200 doses of suspected methamphetamine.
Also seized were three pill presses capable of making up to 16,000 tablets an hour, as well as 89 kilograms of a cutting agent and 60 kilograms of a pill-binding agent.
“While some of the drugs were packaged in bulk, others were packaged for street level distribution. Preliminary tests also indicate the presence of fentanyl,” Wright said.
Surrey RCMP Insp. Mike Hall said that “based upon the sophistication and capacity of this operation to produce massive quantities of street level drugs, we believe there is a large criminal network associated to this lab.”
“This seizure will cause a significant disruption to this group’s ability to distribute mass amounts of potentially fatal street drugs in the Lower Mainland,” he said.
Sgt. Derek Westwick, of the clandestine lab team, said illicit labs endanger the general public.
“Clandestine labs pose a significant risk of contamination due to the volume of toxic and hazardous chemicals being handled by untrained individuals. The public can play a key role and is urged to contact police immediately if they suspect a clan lab in their community,” he said.
Meanwhile, both the RCMP and Vancouver Police have made other recent arrests of people connected to the Brothers Keepers.
On Aug. 1, Jagraj Singh Atwal, Meninder Singh Dhaliwal and Samroop Gill were charged with aggravated assault for an alleged attack in Vancouver in February. The victim, Gagandeep Singh Sandhu, has his own history with police. Their next court appearance is Aug. 21.
About a month after, Dhaliwal was shot outside a longshore workers training centre on Mitchell Island in Richmond. He survived.
Atwal was also recently charged in Surrey, along with Jaskeert Singh Kalkat and Jaskaran Kandola with six counts including assault, using pepper spray as a weapon and using a motor vehicle as a weapon related to an incident on June 10 of this year.
Surrey RCMP said it couldn’t comment on the charges against Atwal, Kalkat and Kandola or the circumstances that led to them.