The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has been very busy, including at its Tsawwassen inspection facility, with four significant seizures of methamphetamine over the last six months.
The seizures amount to more than 6,330 kg of methamphetamine and were all discovered within jugs labeled as canola oil destined for export to Australia, the CBSA announced on Wednesday during a news conference.
“The safety and security of Canadians is our government’s top priority. I want to thank the CBSA, the RCMP and our Australian and New Zealand law enforcement partners for their excellent work in disrupting organized crime and protecting our communities from dangerous narcotics,” said Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, in a news release.
On May 31, border officers from the Metro Vancouver District Marine Operations, Tsawwassen Container Examination Facility and Commercial Operations, seized 180 jugs containing a total of 2,898 kg of liquid methamphetamine.
The liquid drug can be converted into huge amounts of powder or crystal methamphetamine.
On May 3, border officers at the Tsawwassen facility seized 19 jugs containing a total of 325.12 kg of liquid methamphetamine.
Also at the Tsawwassen facility, on Jan. 22, officers seized 180 jugs containing a total of 2,907 kg of liquid methamphetamine. The CBSA said that seizure, enough to fill 35 large suitcases, is the CBSA’s largest methamphetamine seizure to date.
On Dec. 13, 2022, border officers from the Metro Vancouver District Marine Operations, Burnaby Container Examination Facility and Commercial Operations, seized 40 jugs containing a total of 204.30 kg of crystal methamphetamine.
“These significant seizures can be attributed to the collaboration of multiple CBSA units, including teams in the Metro Vancouver District and Pacific Region Intelligence Section, along with the collaboration and contributions from our domestic and international law enforcement partners such as the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Service, the New Zealand Police and Customs Service,” the CBSA said. “The investigation of these seizures was referred to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in British Columbia.”
Having begun operations in 2019, the state-of-the-art Tsawwassen inspection facility for the CBSA, located near Deltaport on Tsawwassen First Nations lands, was to increase security and the examination capacity for goods arriving at marine ports of entry, primarily Deltaport and Fraser Surrey Docks. Previously, all containers identified as requiring further examination had to be trucked to the inspection facility in Burnaby.
The 55,000-square-foot Tsawwassen facility is double in size to the one in Burnaby and is designed to not only increase the number of containers examined but also reduce the average wait times.
