Two arrested, cocaine seized in Beauford Place bust

A traffic stop in the east end of St. John's resulted in a police raid at a nearby home, and two people being arrested for drug trafficking on Saturday.

The two men, ages 33 and 40, were stopped at 11 p.m., Friday and arrested for trafficking cocaine.

The following afternoon, neighbours were told to stay inside their homes as police executed a search warrant at a bungalow on Beauford Place.

All entrances to the street were blocked off as police, firefighters and paramedics attended the scene.

Police were wearing protective gear, while St. John's Regional Fire Department showed up with its hazardous materials response trailer.

The house sits in the middle of the quiet street, directly across from a playground with a daycare centre just down the road.

Neighbours reported seeing a police car on the road throughout the morning before a heavy police presence moved in during the afternoon.

Police say the 40-year-old man was on parole, which has now been revoked. Both men remain in police custody.

Neighbours say the house was generally quiet, except for a pair of noisy incidents in the past two weeks. One woman said police showed up at the home on Friday night to deal with a disturbance that had multiple people yelling.

Tensions have been heightened in the city after police and health officials warned of 16 overdoses, two involving deaths, in two weeks.

• Bad batch of drugs to blame for string of overdoses, says Tree Walsh
• 'It is a fentanyl-related death': St. John's woman 2nd fatal overdose, police say

Police have linked the overdoses to fentanyl, an opioid 100 times more potent than morphine.

While there is no indication the powder seized in Saturday's raid was anything but cocaine, police say they are taking every precaution when dealing with illicit drugs.