More than 1.7 million methamphetamine pills were seized and four men arrested over the course of two days while the Équipe nationale de répression du crime organisé (ENRCO) dismantled a large synthetic drug ring in the Lanaudière region, north of Montreal.
On Thursday and Friday, the specialized squad, which specifically targets organized crime, carried out nine search warrants in Chertsey, where the drug lab was dismantled, Ste-Béatrix, St-Félix-de-Valois, St-Charles-Borromée and Laval, an SQ spokesperson said.
Officers also seized 14 kilograms of pure methamphetamine, four kilograms of cocaine and roughly $130,000 in cash. Four presses that were used to process the methamphetamine into tablets were also seized along with dozens of stamps used to leave ident marks on the pills.
SQ spokesperson Louis-Philippe Bibeau said fully dismantling the lab in Chertsey could take days. Given the dangers involved, police explosives technicians were dispatched to the scene.
The lab was based in a commercial building “used as a site to fabricate and [encapsulate] methamphetamine pills in Chertsey on a large scale,” ENRCO stated in a release. “The investigation revealed that the drugs being produced were supplying several criminal organizations.”
ENRCO’s Montreal squad is composed of members of the Sûreté du Québec, RCMP, Montreal police and the Laval police.
Two men from Laval, ages 25 and 28, were arrested along with two 34-year-old men from the Lanaudière region. All four were released and are expected to be charged, at a later date, with drug trafficking and the production of an illicit substance.