Police seized more than 120,000 cannabis edibles impersonating branded products

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Police in Canada said they dismantled an organized crime group and arrested six people suspected of being involved in the distribution of fake cannabis-based bars and edibles resembling branded products.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the investigation began on October 3 when search warrants were served at two dispensaries and five homes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

“These warrants were related to an organized crime group allegedly involved in the production and distribution of illicit drugs and tobacco smuggling in Port Alberni and Nanaimo,” officials said. “The clinics in question are the Green Coast clinic in Port Alberni and the Coastal Storm clinic in Lantzville.”

Police added that search warrants were also executed at a suspected storage location in Port Alberni and at a warehouse and manufacturing facility adjacent to the Coastal Storm dispensary, which contained two modular trailers where cannabis edibles were produced, stored and distributed.

The following items were seized from the locations:

• Over 120,000 cannabis edibles in packaging resembling popular chocolate bars, potato chips, nacho chips, honey and other candies
• Over 3 kg of psilocybin mushrooms, 1,740 psilocybin capsules, over 400 psilocybin chocolates/candies and tons of other psilocybin products
• 2.2 pounds of compressed hemp resin
• Over 500 pounds of hemp buds
• Over 19 pounds a piece
• Over 5,000 cannabis vaporization cartridges
• 5 vehicles
• 2 ATMs containing cash
• Over 164 major cases of tobacco contraband (equivalent to 82,000 packs of cigarettes)
• Over $400,000 in cash
• Gun
• Other accessories

“Although the contraband cannabis-infused bars and chips appeared to be professionally manufactured, packaged and quality-controlled products, they were discovered to have been manufactured in highly unsanitary and highly contaminated modular trailers,” the RCMP says. “The preliminary assessment of the edibles also indicates that they were treated with unknown amounts of THC and are likely to have been cross-contaminated with other drugs and substances present in the trailers where they were produced and packaged.”

Equally disturbing, police said, was that the counterfeit snacks claimed to have medicinal properties and dangerously high drug potency, and the labels “claimed to be 100 times more potent than regulated cannabis products.”

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and he faces numerous drug-related charges.