‘False flag’ kidnapping report leads to huge North Vancouver drug seizure

RCMP in North Vancouver say they have arrested four people and busted a significant illegal cannabis and magic mushroom operation, after someone phoned in a fake kidnapping report.

The raid unfolded around 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 31, after police got a tip by phone that a man had been kidnapped and was being held at gunpoint in a warehouse in the 1500-block of Richmond Street.

North Vancouver RCMP Const. Mansoor Sahak said police immediately responded to the building, where they observed two vehicles leaving.

1:59 North Vancouver RCMP announce false kidnapping call led to drug seizure

Mounties stopped one of the vehicles on the North Vancouver side of Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and arrested two people. The Vancouver police Emergency Response Team stopped the second vehicle and arrested its occupants on the Vancouver side.

Mounties then executed search warrants at the warehouse where they seized a “significant quantity of drugs and cash.”

“The warehouse appears to have been the site of a drug trafficking lab where drugs were stored, prepared packaged to be shipped and sold on the streets,” Sahak said.

“The drugs seized included illicit marijuana, mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms.”

Police seized eight kilograms of dried cannabis and five kilograms of raw magic mushrooms, along with hundreds of packaged, bottled, pilled and chocolate or gummy processed versions of the drugs, Sahak said.

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Police, however, found no evidence anyone had ever been kidnapped or held at gunpoint, and believe instead that someone who knew about the drug operation used it as a pretext to prompt a police raid.

“Police believe the kidnapping allegations to be a false flag intended to target the drug trafficking warehouse,” Sahak said.

Two of the people arrested, both men from Surrey, are facing trafficking charges.