Raid on Calgary home yields Alberta's 4th-largest fentanyl seizure
Home identified as 'a potential fentanyl stash site,' while another 943 pills found in Hillhurst apartment
Police say they seized more than 3,700 fentanyl pills when executing search warrants in the Calgary communities of Killarney and Hillhurst in late October.
The larger seizure involved 2,771 pills taken on Oct. 28 from a vehicle parked at a home in the southwest community of Killarney that was identified as "a potential fentanyl stash site" based on an earlier investigation in Lethbridge.
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That marked the fourth-largest seizure of fentanyl in Alberta's history, according to police:
- 11,597 — Calgary, February 2015
- 3,200 — Leduc County, December 2015
- 2,800 — Fort McMurray, June 2015
- 2,771 — Calgary, October 2016
- 2,000 — Edmonton, June 2016
- 1,866 — Grande Prairie, October 2014
Police said the home was also being used as a cocaine conversion lab and officers seized 23 grams of cocaine along with 135 grams of a suspected buffing agent from the residence.
Two suspects, aged 24 and 30, were arrested and charged with numerous drug-related offences.
Meanwhile, on Oct. 26, officers searched an apartment in the Hillhurst area and seized 943 fentanyl pills.
The target of that investigation was a 22-year-old who was found with 56 fentanyl pills during a traffic stop on Oct. 24.
He has been charged with numerous drug offences as well as breach of recognizance and breach of probation.
The seizures were co-ordinated by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, or ALERT, a group that targets organized crime. and includes members of the Calgary Police Service, Edmonton Police Service, Lethbridge Police Service, Medicine Hat Police Service, Alberta Sheriffs and RCMP.