The Vancouver Police Department is sharing some details about how it dismantled an organized crime network in the Downtown Eastside, and a pub and hotel were the base of operations.

A six-week-long investigation led to three arrests and the seizure of $336,000 in drugs. The drugs were seized from a Downtown Eastside rooming house.

Thousands of dollars in stolen property were also recovered, and VPD said these items were earmarked for sale on the black market.

According to VPD, a Vancouver pub and a hotel were where the organization operated.

“During the six-week investigation, officers from Task Force Barrage gathered evidence about the activities of a criminal network operating in the West Pub and using several suites inside the West Hotel to traffic drugs, weapons, and stolen property,” VPD said.

West Pub is located on Carrall Street and is connected to the West Hotel.

The pub is also just seconds away from Calabash Bistro, which told us about its own experiences with crime on that block.

“Although this hotel is meant for low-income community members, our investigation found that rooms were being rented by organized criminals who don’t even live in the neighbourhood,” said VPD Sergeant Addison in a statement.

Addison added that the rooms weren’t being used for shelter. Instead, they were being used to store stolen goods, weapons and drugs. Among the recovered weapons and drugs were nine real and imitation guns, 200 rounds of ammunition, a taser, four sets of body armour, 44 knives, machetes and swords, and five kilos of drugs, including fentanyl, cocaine, and crystal meth.

The investigation was launched in August in hopes of targeting criminal activity in and around Carrall and East Hastings Street.

“That intersection, along with Main and Hastings, historically has the highest frequency of violent crime in Vancouver, resulting in ongoing safety concerns from residents and business owners in the area,” VPD said.

The three people who were arrested were men in their 50s, and the VPD noted that none of them were Downtown Eastside residents.