It was one of the largest drug busts Saskatoon has even seen and the high-level drug trafficker behind it all is now headed to prison for 10 years.
Wayne Ngai, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in orchestrating the major drug ring.
Authorities conducted surveillance for two months before performing two massive drug raids and what they recovered shocked them.
Police seized over $400,000 cash, 21 kilograms of meth, more than 4,400 pills of fentanyl, over 2,400 grams of powdered cocaine and other significant amounts of cocaine, hash, marijuana and heroin.
The Crown said the street value of the drugs would fetch anywhere from $662,000 to more than $2,250,000 on the high-end.
“It’s certainly the biggest file I’ve been involved in, and I know a lot of the officers said it was the biggest file they’ve been involved in as well. So it was a very large bust,” federal Crown prosecutor Stephen Jordan said.
WATCH BELOW: Saskatoon police, RCMP show off meth, cash from drug bust
Members of the Saskatoon Integrated Drug Enforcement Team (SIDEST) arrested Ngai, along with a 32-year-old man, at an apartment in the 100-block of 3rd Avenue South on May 31.
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SIDEST then shifted its focus and sting to the home Ngai shared with his parents and brother.
There they arrested Yok Man Ngia, 62, Paul Ngia, 33, and Shuk Ching Ngai, 60, who were fast asleep when authorities arrived. They are out on bail and were not present in court on Thursday.
Wayne Ngai’s sentence was a joint submission. The Crown said it reflected the level of danger these drugs, particularly fentanyl, could have posed to the public if they had made their way onto the streets.
“There were 12 counts before the court and he pled guilty to six of the counts that related to possession for the purposes of trafficking various substances,” Wayne Ngai’s lawyer Chris Lavier said.
“The charges related to trafficking themselves had been dropped by the Crown.”
Court heard that Ngai was raised in Saskatoon and enrolled in the military after high school and served four years as a reservist.
He had one prior conviction for proceeds of crime and has suffered from addictions, specifically cocaine.
In exchange for his guilty plea, charges against his parents and brother are anticipated to be stayed in the new year.
“My client is very remorseful. He has significant insight to his offending particularly so because he’s ashamed at how its affected this family,” Lavier said.
“He’s put his family’s properties at risk – two houses are subject to seize by the provincial government and he wants this behind him.”
Police told Global News no new arrests have been made in this case, and they’re still determining where the drugs were brought in from.
The 32-year-old co-accused arrested downtown, who is referred to by the Crown as a “drug courier,” is set to stand trial in March 2019.
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