KELOWNA — Police confirm there’s a direct link between Calgary and Kelowna and the illicit fentanyl trade.
Calgary police say they’ve been trying to determine where fentanyl pills coming into the city were being produced.
It says some of the pills were coming from a large operation in the central Okanagan which was uncovered earlier this month. One was located in a custom car shop on Auburn Crescent in West Kelowna. The second operation was located on Neave Court in Kelowna where two people were taken into custody. Four people were arrested in the West Kelowna raid, three from the central Okanagan and one from Calgary.
Charges have not yet been laid in either of the two busts.
Following the seizures on Auburn Crescent , police stated the operation had the potential to produce hundreds of pills, likely distributed locally and possibly beyond.
But Calgary police say the illegal pill factory may have shipped as many as 100,000 fentanyl tablets per month to that city.
In total, three commercial-grade pill presses have been located in the central Okanagan in the past three months by RCMP.
“Identifying the source of fentanyl pill production in Western Canada is extremely important in the ongoing efforts in relation to the health crisis we are facing in Calgary,” says Staff Sergeant Martin Schiavetta of the Calgary Police Service. “The drug trade crosses many jurisdictions making inter-agency cooperation invaluable.”