Bus drug trafficking: four people arrested in the Maritimes
RCMP say they seized 1.3 kg of cocaine, 2 kg of MDMA, approximately 4000 capsules of psilocybin (magic mushrooms), $45,000 in cash, among others.
< p class="e-p">Four people will face charges in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island following a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation into the transportation of drugs by bus of Maritime Bus.
The investigation dubbed Operation Highspeed, led by the RCMP's Federal Intelligence Unit, began in November 2022. It concerns the transport of drugs between the three Maritime provinces and Ontario.
Drug traffickers are always looking for new techniques or changing their activities to make it harder for the police to catch them, points out an RCMP sergeant, Chris Gunn.
It's unusual for them to use bus or mail delivery services, Gunn said.
Police arrested three men and a woman in mid- January. These people are free pending their next court appearance.
They will face a range of charges, including the following: trafficking in a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, conspiracy to traffic in #x27;a controlled substance.
Maritime Bus company vehicles at the coach station of Charlottetown
Officers arrested one of the men and the woman at a bus station in Halifax. They are residents of this city. The other two men arrested at the Charlottetown bus station are residents of Murray Harbor and Lower Montague, Prince Edward Island.
Police are looking for another suspect in Halifax.
Most freight companies eventually work together to a police investigation, according to Maritime Bus owner Mike Cassidy.
The police had strong evidence that a particular package on our coach that day that was leaving Halifax for Charlottetown might contain drugs, Cassidy says of the police intervention at the coach station Charlottetown in January.
And we worked closely with the RCMP that day to do our duty, he points out.
Maritime Bus owner Mike Cassidy says his employees never know what's in the packages they carry, and that they willingly cooperate with the police when the latter need help.
According to the entrepreneur, Maritime Bus was only a cog in the gears of the police operation. The police had to wait for someone to sign the package receipt slip before intervening.
The police also carried out searches in the two provinces. The RCMP say they seized 1.3 kg of cocaine, 2 kg of MDMA, approximately 4,000 capsules of psilocybin (magic mushrooms), $45,000 in cash, as well as packaging and paraphernalia used in drug use. .
Investigation continues, adds Chris Gunn.
With information from Tony Davis, from CBC
