Two New Westminster residents are facing drug charges for allegedly trafficking fentanyl.
The arrests are the culmination of nearly six months of work by the New Westminster Police Department’s street crime unit. In February, the unit was tasked with investigating fentanyl drug traffickers operating in the city. Fentanyl is a synthetic painkiller 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine, and in 2015 it was detected – alone or in combination with other drugs – in 32 per cent of overdose deaths in the province.
“It is often used to ‘cut’ drugs such as cocaine and heroin, and many times users are unaware that their drugs are mixed with fentanyl,” noted a press release from police.
Following the investigation by police, a search warrant was executed at a home in the 600 block of Blackford St. in New Westminster on May 5. A second search warrant was executed at a home in Surrey with the help of the Emergency Response Team and Surrey RCMP drug unit. The searches uncovered an undisclosed amount of drugs, including cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine, along with equipment for drug production, noted the press release.
Officers also seized three rifles and a shotgun along with “several boxes of ammunition.”
Charged are 46-year-old Richard Dean Findlay and 33-year-old Julie Ellen Broadway.
Findlay faces one count of trafficking cocaine; six counts of trafficking heroin and fentanyl; one count of possessing heroin; and two counts of possessing a firearm.
Broadway is charged with one count of trafficking heroin and fentanyl.
