RCMP say three men arrested in B.C. have ties to Mexican drug cartels

By The Canadian Press on November 13, 2024.

The RCMP logo is seen on the background for a news conference, in St. John's, Saturday, June 24, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

SURREY, B.C. – RCMP federal investigators have arrested three men in British Columbia they believe are connected to a transnational organized crime group connected to Mexican drug cartels bringing cocaine into Canada.

They say officers also seized 23 firearms, several thousand rounds of ammunition and “multi-kilos of illicit drugs” from a home in Surrey, B.C.

They say that on Sept. 23, police executed a search warrant at the home, which was surrounded by compound fencing, steel gates, and razor wire.

Police say they arrested the men for their alleged involvement in the importation of illicit drugs, and weapons-related offences.

The bust comes as Mounties in Burnaby also announce the arrest of four people for alleged involvement in interprovincial drug trafficking after a four-month investigation.

They say officers executed search warrants in Coquitlam and Surrey, where they seized more than 9,500 Hydromorphone pills believed to be diverted prescription pills, as well as other substances including more than a kilogram of suspected cocaine.

They say the group was allegedly shipping the drugs as far as Manitoba and the Yukon, as well as locally.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.