Downtown Eastside raid nets $2M in cash, drugs, Vancouver police say

The Vancouver Police Department’s task force targeting the city’s Downtown Eastside says it seized a trove of cash and drugs worth more than $2 million during a recent raid.

In a media release, police said Task Force Barrage began probing a group of drug dealers believed to be running drugs out of a building near East Hastings and Gore Avenue earlier this spring.

Officers raided the building at 339 East Hastings St. on July 17, where they seized more than 14 kilograms of drugs, along with $141,000 in Canadian and U.S. cash.

1:50 Violent crime in DTES dropped in first months of Task Force Barrage, police say

Among the drugs were 5.5 kilograms of cocaine, 5.3 kilograms of crystal meth, 3.2 kilograms of fentanyl and almost 1,600 pills, including methadone and dilaudid.

Police arrested 19 people at the scene, who have been released pending charges.

Vancouver police say they have seized 1,145 weapons and 127 real and replica guns and forwarded 492 cases to prosecutors for consideration of charges since Task Force Barrage began in February.