SURREY, B.C. – Mounties in Surrey say they investigating more than two dozen shooting complaints that have left one person dead and five injured so far this year.
Officers have responded to 28 complaints since Jan. 1, nine involving shots being fired into a building or residence and two of bullet casings being found.
Mounties say the incidents are not believed to be linked to groups involved in last year’s drug violence, though the complaints are tied to the drug trade.
Gunfire on Surrey streets made headlines in early 2015, when police said a group of South Asians and those of Somali descent were involved in a low-level drug conflict.
Mounties say four people have been arrested and that the March 16 seizure of $4.5 million in drugs was one of the largest in the city’s history.
“We are attacking this situation now and we are attacking it aggressively,” RCMP Supt. Shawn Gill says in a news release. “With the intelligence we are receiving, our proactive enforcement teams are making it very difficult for these people to conduct their illegal business in our city.”
Mounties say Pardip Gayer of Abbotsford faces four counts of trafficking in a controlled substance arising out of the seizure earlier this month.