Mounties bust suspected drug lab in Burnaby (Video)

The RCMP have announced charges against a man alleged to have been running a drug lab using fentanyl after a raid turned up sophisticated equipment capable of producing 18,000 pills an hour.

In November 2014, Canada Border Services Agency intercepted a pill press that was being imported through the Vancouver International Airport’s air cargo facilities and referred the file to the RCMP.

On Jan. 7, the Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Response Team executed a search warrant on a home in the 5900-block 10th Avenue in Burnaby.

There, they seized equipment used in making pills, including a commercial nine-stage pill press, commercial pill coating and sorting machines, colouring powders, press stamp dies of “CDN 80” (which is stamped on real OxyContin tablets) and a cocaine press.

Cpl. Derek Westwick of the clandestine lab team said at a news conference on Thursday that the equipment shows the lab was a highly sophisticated pill-producing operation.

“This one is sophisticated as they come,” said Westwick, who has been with the team for six years.

Officers also recovered a starter pistol with blanks, body armour, brass knuckles, a Taser, a bill-counting machine and $35,000 in U.S. and Canadian cash.

A couple of hundred pills were found at the scene and lab tests confirmed that they contained fentanyl. They were made to look like OxyContin, which can fetch $20 to $30 per pill on the street.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate typically used to treat patients with severe pain. It is often mixed with street drugs such as heroin or cocaine without users knowing. Two milligrams of fentanyl — equivalent to two grains of salt — can be fatal and the amount of fentanyl per pill can vary.

There has been a recent spike in the number of fentanyl-related overdoses in B.C.

Police believe the lab — which was used as a processing facility, not a chemical lab — had just been set up and the person making the pills was still testing out the equipment when the lab was busted.

“This would highlight a production that didn’t fully come online that we were able to identify right at the outset,” said RCMP spokesman Staff-Sgt. Duncan Pound.

Pound wouldn’t confirm whether the Burnaby lab was linked to organized crime, but he said, “I think anyone that might be capable of producing 18,000 tablets per hour is doing that for an organized group.”

Charges of producing a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking have been laid against 26-year-old Riley Thomas Goodwin. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 9.

RCMP are urging residents to call the 24 hour drug tip line at 780-410-4357 to report drug activity in the community. All calls are anonymous.

Agencies/Canadajournal