3 men arrested in B.C. have ties to Mexican drug cartels, RCMP say

Mounties in B.C. say they've arrested three men in Surrey believed to be tied to a transnational organized crime group connected to Mexican drug cartels.

Federal investigators said police searched a Surrey home on Sept. 23 that was surrounded by compound fencing, steel gates and razor wire and arrested men allegedly involved in importing cocaine to Canada.

Cpl. Arash Seyed told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that one of the suspects is a Mexican national who had arrived in Canada legally, and two of the suspects are Canadian citizens with "connections to virtually every criminal gang in British Columbia."

Investigators also seized 23 guns, several thousand rounds of ammunition, and kilograms of illicit drugs.

The suspects have since been released, and Seyed said police are recommending firearms and drug-related charges. 

He added the group is still under investigation, and he cannot share more details about the suspects' identity or identify a specific cartel association or criminal group.

Seyed said the arrests come after a years-long investigation into the group that started when RCMP learned in 2021 it was importing drugs into B.C.

Seyed said the members are connected to "one of the main Mexican drug cartels" and that U.S. authorities arrested one of the leaders of the group in July.

He did not name the cartel but said reporters could "connect the dots."

U.S. officials recently announced the July arrest of 76-year-old Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada Garcia in New Mexico, saying he was a co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, described as "one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world."

Cartels working to establish 'foothold' in B.C.

The announcement of the seizures follows RCMP's claim that it had busted "the largest, most sophisticated drug superlab" ever seen in Canada in the B.C. Interior.

 At that time, RCMP said they had evidence that the site was being used to make methamphetamine using P2P (phenyl-2-propanone), something not previously seen in Western Canada but common among Mexican cartels. 

Police did not link the Sept. 23 arrests to any other investigations.

WATCH | Inside the most sophisticated illicit drug lab in Canada: 

Inside the ‘most sophisticated’ drug lab in Canadian history | About That

19 days ago

Duration 10:31

Police in British Columbia say they've dismantled the 'largest, most sophisticated drug superlab' in Canadian history, confiscating 89 guns and hundreds of kilograms of drugs. Andrew Chang breaks down information from the RCMP and drug manufacturing experts about what makes this lab so sophisticated and how far-reaching this criminal network might be.

But overall, Seyed said police prioritize "disrupting" international groups that create and distribute drugs in B.C., particularly in the early days of those groups getting established.

"We... protect our borders and to stop these criminal organizations from operating in Canada," he said.

Seyed said as soon as Canadian police learned about the cartel attempting to set up in B.C., police began working to prevent the group from gaining a "foothold" in Canada.

"Their headquarters has been dismantled, and we're continuing to work on this," he said.

"We stopped the fence, and now we're pursuing charges. That could be a timely process, but the main objective was to stop the spread of potentially lethal drugs into Canadian communities."

Burnaby arrests

Meanwhile, in a separate investigation, police have arrested four others suspected of trafficking large quantities of drugs, including diverted prescription pills, in Burnaby. 

The arrests stem from a four-month investigation into interprovincial drug trafficking that included executing search warrants in nearby Coquitlam and Surrey, police said. 

They said officers seized more than 9,500 hydromorphone pills believed to be diverted prescription pills, as well as other substances including more than a kilogram of suspected cocaine.

The group was allegedly shipping the drugs as far as Manitoba and Yukon, as well as locally, police said.