Victoria has recorded its first confirmed seizure of carfentanil in the city and it was discovered as a result of a joint police operation.
The drug, which Health Canada believes to be 100 times more toxic than fentanyl and 10,000 times more potent then morphine, was found by investigators as they scanned samples of drugs seized during the arrest of two men in a joint operation with West Shore RCMP and VicPD’s Strike Force and Crime Reduction Unit.
One of the men arrested, Horst Francisco Schirmer, was wanted on arrest warrants for violation of two sets of court-ordered conditions which he broke.
The conditions, not having controlled substances or weapons, stemmed from a series of arrests earlier in the year.
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Schirmer and another man were arrested on Aug. 2 after their vehicle was stopped in the 1000-block of Goldstream Avenue by West Shore RCMP.
While police were searching the car they found a satchel full of cash, drug paraphernalia, just over a half kilogram of cocaine mixed with fentanyl, methamphetamine mixed with fentanyl, marijuana, and a small packet of powder which officers said looked like heroin mixed with another drug.
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Analysis showed the packet of powder had a potentially fatal combination of heroin mixed with carfentanil.
Carfentanil is used in veterinary practices to immobilize certain large animals; just a few granules are enough to trigger a fatal overdose.
The drug has caused hundreds of overdoses in the United States and has made its way Canada.
WATCH: VPD confirm that carfentanil has been linked to an overdose death
In November 2016, carfentanil was linked to an overdose death of a Vancouver man.
In February, B.C.’s Health Ministry said it gets weekly surveillance reports on carfentanil and that police were continuing to prioritize investigations into drug trafficking because of the overdose crisis.
The RCMP and Chinese Ministry of Public Security have also partnered to disrupt the supply of illegal carfentanil, fentanyl and other opioids coming into Canada from China.
“Enforcement will ultimately be stronger across provincial and international borders through collaboration with B.C.’s international and federal partners,” the Health Ministry said earlier this year.
The Provincial Toxicology Centre, which provides forensic analysis on overdose fatalities to the coroner, bought new instruments that are more sensitive and accurate in testing for carfentanil and other opioids, and regular testing began in March.
The number of illicit drug deaths in B.C. is continuing to rise this year at a rate of almost four each day, according to statistics released by the BC Coroners Service at the beginning of August.
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Recent numbers show there were 111 suspected drug overdose deaths in June, which is an average of 3.7 per day and a 61 per cent increase from June 2016.
This brings the number of deaths to date in B.C. for 2017 to 780 — which is up from the 414 at the same time last year.
The stats also show that almost three-quarters of all illicit drug deaths were people between the ages of 30 and 59 years and that four out of five who died were male.
These numbers continue to follow a trend seen in a previous report released by the BC Coroners in May that showed there were 488 accidental drug overdose deaths in the province from January through April 2017.
~ with files from Canadian Press
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