10 Albertans facing 139 charges in fentanyl superlab bust near Calgary, says ALERT
CBC
Ten people mostly from Edmonton and Okotoks, Alta., are facing 139 charges after a fentanyl superlab was shut down south of Calgary last July, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) said in a release on Wednesday.
Police said they found 31 kilograms of fentanyl and 7,600 kilograms of the chemicals used to make a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The total street value of the operation, titled Project Essence, was pegged at about $300 million.
Paperwork, Crown counsel disclosure and lab analysis by Health Canada meant charges were delayed until this month.
That delay, however, doesn't surprise a Mount Royal University professor of justice studies.
"I think that all makes sense," Doug King told CBC News in an interview.
"Charges will not be laid until the police know that they can fit things within that 30-month 'Jordan' window. This was a large group of people so, as law enforcement, you would probably be trying to get one or two of them to flip to provide evidence against others. So it is kind of like peeling an onion. You want to get as many people as you can to the core of things."
Jordan is a Supreme Court of Canada decision from 2016 that effectively lays out a right to be tried within a reasonable time, which has been set at 30 months from the charges to end of the court case.
What was initially thought to be 10.5 kilograms of a synthetic opioid turned out to be isotonitazene, which is even more potent than fentanyl. This operation is believed to be the largest reported seizure of isotonitazene in North America, the agency said.
Charges against the 10 Albertans include criminal conspiracy.
The lab was in Aldersyde, about 45 kilometres southeast of Calgary. The investigation began in February last year.
The Calgary Police Service, Edmonton Police Service, RCMP and clandestine laboratory response teams were involved in the operation.
It cost $75,000 to safely dispose of the chemicals.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.