BC

Photo: RCMP

Cash and drugs in Kamloops show and tell Thursday Oct. 18.

An extensive and complex eight month undercover drug investigation initiated by the Kamloops RCMP has shut down an organized criminal 'dial a dope' operation. A team also dismantled a main supplier of cocaine.

Project ENOCTURNAL began on February 1, of this year, after criminal intelligence identified an organized crime group with ties to a lower mainland gang was setting up a dial a dope operation that prominently trafficked cocaine in Kamloops.

The group was mobile and would orchestrate the sale of cocaine at the street level via orders received via telephone. The group was well organized, was trafficking large amounts of cocaine (close to one kilogram) on a monthly basis and were profiting on the addiction created by the sale of this illegal drug.

The predominant client base for the illegal cocaine trade was identified as being from well established, employed cross section of the community who were able to support the high cost associated to the weekly use of the illegal drug.  These weekly users were spending upwards of $1000 per month on cocaine.

The Kamloops RCMP Special Projects Unit, composed of 13 members from the Drug and Property Crime Section, was assigned to Project ENOCTURNAL. During the course of the investigation, the Kamloops RCMP members were assisted by additional Provincial and Federal Drug resources including undercover drug officers, surveillance teams, electronic surveillance experts and wire tap specialists. In the last two weeks of the investigation, an additional eight officers from Kamloops were added to the investigative team.

The undercover drug operators made 20 cocaine purchases in amounts ranging from one gram at $90, to three ounces at $5000. During the course of the investigation, an authorization to intercept private communications, including text messages, was granted and the investigative team began to monitor the private communications of two persons associated to the group and the Drug Line itself.

Through different investigative techniques, all the individuals associated to this group were identified including the purchasers, distributors and the main cocaine supplier who is a Kamloops resident.

During the later part of the investigation five search warrants were executed in and around the Kamloops area. The most significant items seized are as follow:

• 1.3 kilograms of cocaine
• $142,000.00 in cash
• a cocaine pressing kit
• a large quantity of a substance believe to be a cutting agent
• scales, a money counting machine
• cell phones
• bullet proof vests
• two rifles one handgun sawed off gun barrel, ammunition

Photo: RCMP

Guns and drugs at show and tell in Kamloops Thursday morning Oct. 18.

In total, nine Kamloops people were arrested at the conclusion of the operation. This included eight males and one female with ages ranging from 20 to 40 years-old. All have been released on judicial process documents pending a future court appearance.

The RCMP is in the process of finalizing their report to Federal Crown Prosecutors and will be recommending approval for the following charges:

1. Trafficking in a Controlled Substance 
2. Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking 
3. Conspiracy to Commit Trafficking in a Controlled Substance 
4. Commission of Offence for Criminal Organization 
5. Possession of Property or Any Proceeds Thereof, Obtained or Derived Directly or Indirectly by the Commission of Designated Offences