Handguns, vehicles, cash and more than $1 million worth of illicit drugs were seized in what Edmonton police call one of the largest — if not the largest — busts in the service’s history.
Members of Edmonton’s drug and gang enforcement section (EDGE) began their inter-provincial investigation in December 2023.
Police allege three men were involved in drug trafficking, which included transporting drugs in and out of Alberta as well as distributing them throughout Edmonton. A storage location for the drugs was found in a central Edmonton high-rise apartment, according to police.
On May 9, police searched three homes and four vehicles and say they seized 66 kilograms worth of drugs. The following items were seized:
- 55.7 kg of methamphetamine, worth approximately $250,650
- 8.7 kg of cocaine, worth approximately $696,000
- 2.5 kg of fentanyl, worth approximately $300,000
- 83.5 grams of heroin, worth approximately $28,400
- 20 kg of buffing agent
- Five handguns, three of which were loaded at the time of seizure and two of which had defaced serial numbers. Two were also reported stolen in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and one originated from the U.S.
- Four vehicles with hidden compartments
- Approximately $20,000 in various currency
“This investigation is believed to be one of the largest, if not the largest, seizures of controlled substances in EPS history,” said Staff Sgt. David Paton of the EDGE section.
“Intercepting this huge volume of extremely harmful street drugs before they wreak havoc in our city is a rewarding outcome for our investigators, who have worked tirelessly for months on this operation.”
Paton said police believe this group of individuals has been in operation for several years.
“Our belief is that this group is sourcing their drugs from the Lower Mainland (in B.C.),” he said. “This is a huge volume of drugs.”
Paton said one concerning trend police are currently seeing is that the price of methamphetamine is going down, although he’s not sure why.
“If you take methamphetamine – five years ago that was probably valued at approximately the same amount as a kilo of cocaine and almost a kilo of fentanyl – so around the $50,000 mark. But at this time with methamphetamine, it’s really started to decrease in value. So now we’re seeing that a kilo of methamphetamine has come down to as low as $3,000 to $6,000,” he explained.
“There’s a lot of implications for that. And we’re not exactly sure what would be driving that — the economics of it. Is it simply a supply and demand type of scenario?”
Edmonton police said on Thursday that Jesse Koble, 29, is facing 27 charges, Mitchell Steeg, 31, is charged with nine offences, and Steven Santillana, 34 is charged with two offences. Police said all 38 criminal charges are drug and firearms-related.