(VANCOUVER ISLAND, CANADA) — Canadian police say they have arrested six people and dismantled an organized crime group suspected of producing tens of thousands of counterfeit cannabis candy bars and edibles resembling cannabis products. popular brand.

The takedown began earlier this month when Royal Canadian Mounted Police Pacific Region investigators executed search warrants at two dispensaries and five separate residences on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, on October 3, according to a press release from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Police Tuesday.

“These warrants were associated with an organized crime group believed to be involved in the production and distribution of illicit drugs and contraband tobacco in Port Alberni and Nanaimo,” authorities said. “The dispensaries in question were Green Coast Dispensary in Port Alberni and Coastal Storm Dispensary located in Lantzville.”

Search warrants were also executed at a suspected hideout in Port Alberni, as well as a storage and production facility adjacent to the Coastal Storm Dispensary, including two modular trailers where cannabis edibles were produced, stored and distributed, authorities said.

The list of seized items includes more than 120,000 cannabis edible products with packaging resembling popular brand chocolate bars, chips, nacho chips, honey and other candies, including more than 3 kilograms (6 .6 pounds) of psilocybin mushrooms, 1,740 psilocybin capsules, over 400 psilocybin. chocolate, candy, and a host of other psilocybin products, 2.2 pounds of pressed cannabis resin, over 500 pounds of cannabis bud, over 19 pounds of shatter, over 5,000 vape cartridges of cannabis, counterfeit honey containing cannabis, five vehicles, two vending machines. containing cash, approximately 164 cases of contraband tobacco equivalent to 82,000 packs of cigarettes, more than $400,000 in cash and a shotgun, police said.

“Even though the candy bars and chips containing contraband cannabis looked like professionally manufactured, packaged and quality-controlled products, they were found to have been produced in highly unsanitary and heavily contaminated modular trailers “, declared the RCMP authorities. “A preliminary assessment of the edible products also indicates that they were treated with unknown quantities of THC and likely contaminated with other drugs and substances present in the trailers where they were produced and packaged.”

Equally concerning, police said, was the fact that counterfeit snack packaging claimed to have dangerously high medicinal properties and drug potency values, with many candy packaging labels claiming to be “100 times more potent than the products based on regulated cannabis.”

“Given the highly contaminated and unsanitary conditions of the illicit drug production facility where these cannabis edibles were produced, it is possible that the consumption of these products could result in serious health risks,” the RCMP said . “We urge members of the public to exercise extreme caution if they already own or encounter such products in the future, particularly in the run-up to Halloween.”

This investigation continues and numerous drug-related charges have been laid.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.