Five people from Maple Ridge have been charged with selling the deadly drug fentanyl, following a four-month investigation by the Ridge Meadows RCMP street enforcment unit.
Police started their investigation, focused on street-level drug trafficking, last November.
Over the course of the investigation, police collected evidence and prepared reports to Crown counsel, recommending trafficking charges, RCMP said in a release.
“The investigation and subsequent charges against these individuals sends a clear message this won’t be tolerated in our community. Fentanyl is a highly potent and addictive synthetic opioid analgesic that is estimated to be up to 100 times more potent than morphine and we can’t have this on our streets,” said Sgt. Mitch Fox, in charge of the street enforcement unit.
Fentanyl has been linked to hundreds of illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C. in the last few years.
Charged with trafficking in a controlled substance, Section 5(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substance Act:
• Bobbi Passmore (female, age 34); one count
• Dylan Jay Friesen (male age 36), two counts;
• Joseph Grant Bardonnex (male, age 36), three counts;
• Zoe Diana Elizabeth Dore (female, age 20), one count;
• Cameron Zachary Cater (male, age 22), two counts.
All arrested are from Maple Ridge.