British Columbia’s gang-focused Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit announced charges against five men Wednesday in what it called a major firearms trafficking investigation.
The unit said it also seized a cache of drugs and guns.
The CFSEU said it started working with the New Westminster Police Department on a probe into an alleged gun trafficker last fall, which later expanded to multiple suspects.
On Tuesday, the unit searched several businesses and homes in Langley, New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, North Vancouver and Maple Ridge.
Those search warrants netted six handguns, a rifle, multiple prohibited gun parts and magazines and body armour pieces, as well as suspected fentanyl and a kilogram of suspected cocaine.
“Early results indicate that the firearms have been sourced both domestically and internationally,” the CFSEU said in a media release
The unit was working with U.S. law enforcement to try and trace the guns’ origins, it added.
Twenty-four-year-old Arman Anthony Giordano of Maple Ridge, 28-year-old Brandon Vuong Nguyen of Burnaby, 39-year-old Ali Sabha Taghan of Langley, 33-year-old Derek Melville Johnston of North Vancouver and 30-year-old Jerry Lino of Coquitlam were arrested on Tuesday, it said.
The men have been charged with various weapons charges and were due in court on Wednesday.
The investigation is ongoing, and more charges are possible, the CFSEU said.
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