Mounties bust major BC drug ‘supermarket’ lab linked to organized crime – Brandon Sun

Mounties have dismantled what they say is the largest, most sophisticated illegal drug “super lab” in Canada that serves as a “supermarket” for organized crime.

Police said the lab manufactured and distributed the powerful opioids fentanyl and methamphetamine across Canada and internationally.

David Teboul, deputy commissioner of the RCMP in the Pacific region, said at a news conference Thursday that dismantling the laboratory “undoubtedly saved thousands of lives in Canada and abroad.”

“I cannot underestimate the complexity that our researchers realized in this particular laboratory,” he said.

Teboul said its size, the type of equipment used and the nature of the drug recipes, including a recipe used by a Mexican cartel, show how sophisticated this laboratory was.

“This brought the level of complexity of the operation to a level that was unprecedented in Western Canada, if not in the entire country, certainly.”

Officers last week executed search warrants at the drug lab in Falklands, B.C., and related locations in Surrey in Metro Vancouver.

Police said they seized 54 kilograms of fentanyl, a “large” amount of precursor chemicals, 390 kilograms of methamphetamine and smaller amounts of cocaine, MDMA and marijuana.

They found a total of 89 firearms at the Surrey locations, including handguns, AR-15-style rifles and submachine guns, as well as small explosive devices, ammunition, silencers, high-capacity magazines, body armor and $500,000 in cash.

Teboul said the lab is set up to continue producing drugs without having to refuel chemicals for weeks, if not months.

“The place our inspectors brought down was a supermarket belonging to organized crime groups,” he said.

Teboul said the drugs in this case were not intended for the U.S. market but were shipped internationally. He did not say where he is while the case is still under investigation.

In such cases, he said, criminals are extremely sophisticated and their allegiances change.

“This is all about making money. These are individuals acting through convenience and opportunity, and they’re not necessarily associated with a particular group that wears funny patches on their backs or things of that nature,” he said.

Investigators said the suspect, Gaganpreet Randhawa, was arrested and remains in custody facing six drug and firearms-related charges. Teboul said more arrests were possible.

Mitigating environmental impacts and cleaning up the lab would cost at least $500,000 and could be “significantly higher,” he said.

Fentanyl is the main ingredient in many of the toxic illicit drugs that killed nearly 48,000 people nationwide between January 2016 and March 2024, according to the federal government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.