Bullet casings, tire fire, spray paint leads Mission RCMP officers to fentanyl lab

A large-scale operating fentanyl lab has now been shut down near Mission, B.C.

RCMP said officers were called to a report of gunshots in a remote area of Stave Lake Road, in the Hatzic Valley, during the early morning hours of Oct. 27.

When officers arrived, they found a number of spent bullet casings, which led them to investigate a large acreage next to where the casings were found.

“They also found that the word fentanyl had been spray painted on the street in front of the property and a tire had been set on fire,” Cpl. Harrison Mohr with Mission RCMP said at a press conference.

“So we certainly believe that whoever did this did so with the purpose of drawing police to the property to help us investigate this drug lab.”

Approximately 25 kilograms of pure fentanyl was seized, as well as about 3 kilograms of fentanyl already cut for street distribution, RCMP said in a release. It is estimated that the product seized would have equated to over 2.5 million street doses of fentanyl.

Materials to make more fentanyl were also found, including 2,000 litres of chemicals, and 6,000 litres of hazardous chemical waste.

“It’s a very sophisticated set-up and it’s one that requires a lot of very expensive equipment and certainly a lot of hazardous chemicals,” Mohr said.

He added that the people running this lab would have had access to a lot of dangerous equipment.

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Mohr said officers do believe this operation had ties to organized crime due to the amount of product and money involved but that is still under investigation.

“There is evidence in the lab indicating that the lab itself has been running since 2017,” he said.

“Evidence indicated it was initially a meth lab and at some point transitioned over to fentanyl production but we’re not sure of the timeline on that.”

No one is in custody at this time and no one was in the lab when police were on the scene.

Mohr said there were others living on the 80-acre property but officers are investigating if those people are connected with the lab.

Insp. Ted Lewko, officer in charge for Mission RCMP, said he hopes residents of the area will feel safer knowing this facility has been shut down.

“The seizure of this fentanyl, and the dismantling of this drug lab to prevent further production, will have a significant impact on the people that profit from the harm this drug causes in our communities,” he said in a release.

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Anyone with information about this property, or who suspects there is a drug lab close to their home, should call Mission RCMP at 604-826-7161.

“I don’t know if you could get much more toxic than the stuff they were making there,” Mohr said.

“The financial impact on the folks who were running this lab is going to be significant.”