The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they have arrested three people and seized nearly $10 million worth of synthetic opioids in a large-scale drug lab investigation.
In a news release Friday, police said the operation also led them to $8,000, firearms and various chemical precursors estimated to help in the production of millions of dollars’ worth of drugs.
The RCMP said they first started the investigation in the spring, after a man placed a suspicious order of chemicals through his business. By July, police had identified the three people suspected of manufacturing the drugs in a lab located in Schomberg, Ont.
Through the investigation, the RCMP found a second storage site in Port Colborne, Ont., Supt. Jonathan Ko said at a news conference in Newmarket on Friday. He said it took 10 days to neutralize and clean up the 20,000 litres of hazardous waste found at the laboratory.
“The swift, coordinated actions and successful outcomes like this are only possible through strong collaboration and trust between agencies,” he said.
The laboratory was located in an outbuilding on a large acreage property, Ko told CBC Toronto. None of the accused owned the property and were instead renting it.
“The owners had absolutely no idea of what was going on,” he said.
By July, police had identified the three people suspected of manufacturing the drugs in a lab located in Schomberg, Ont. (Mercedes Gaztambide/CBC)
According to Ko, based on the quantities of finished product and the disposable waste, the lab was substantial and operating for some time. There were no indications the drugs were being exported, he said.
During a search on Sept. 7, police say they found a pill press, drug recipes, flasks and chemical glassware used to aid in the production of the illicit substances. The drugs seized include MDMA, methamphetamine and GHB and weighed approximately 239 kilograms, Ko said.
The three people arrested are facing a total of 33 charges, ranging from production and trafficking of substances to unlawful possession of firearms.
At Friday’s news conference, RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather said investigations like these are truly important.
“We prevented the future production of millions of dollars worth of synthetic drugs, protected our communities from harm, and averted a potentially dangerous public safety incident posed by the unsafe storage of dangerous chemicals,” he said.
The drug lab operation reflects a “growing national trend,” Leather said.
“Law enforcement and public health agencies are seeing more domestic labs, greater chemical sophistication and a shift from the importation to in-country manufacturing of potent synthetic drugs,” he said.
Leather said preventing future labs from operating requires intelligence sharing, vigilance, tighter controls for precursor chemicals and swift action.
Police are awaiting Health Canada’s analysis of the chemicals. The RCMP has dismantled a total of 50 drug labs since Jan. 1, 2024, the force said at Friday’s news conference.