A Calgary man is facing charges after authorities intercepted a package containing carfentanil at the Vancouver International Mail Centre that was destined for Alberta.
Officials from the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency held a joint news conference in Calgary on Tuesday and say CBSA agents confiscated one kilogram of carfentanil from a package that came from China in late June.
The drugs were hidden in a package that was declared as printer accessories and was addressed to Joshua Wrenn in Calgary.
“Upon inspecting the parcel, weighing just over one kilogram, officers noted an unknown, white substance. That substance was sent to the CBSA lab for analysis and it was tested positive for carfentanil,” said Chief Ana Maria Coutu from the Canada Border Services Agency. “The carfentanil was then removed from the package and it was not reintroduced into the mail stream.”
Police say carfentanil is an analog of the opioid fentanyl and is 100 times more potent.
“If you look at what one kilogram of carfentanil can produce it's approximately 50 million fatal doses that could have hit our Canadian streets,” said Insp. Allan Lai, RCMP “K” Division OIC.
“Now we’re seeing a lot more analogs that are extremely more toxic, carfentanil being, as was mentioned, a hundred times more toxic than fentanyl itself,” said Calgary Police A/Insp. Martin Schiavetta.
Joshua Wrenn, 24, was arrested on July 5th in Calgary and is now charged with one count of Importation of a Controlled Substance and one count of Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking a Controlled Substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA).
Police say the drug was found in its raw form and that it is concerning.
“This is a global issue,” said Lai. “I think this is serious enough that we need to make sure that we do prevent this from coming into our country. We also want to ensure that we act upon this.”
“It is hard to imagine what the impact could have been if even the smallest amounts of this drug were to have made its way to the street. The illicit drug trade remains a dynamic and lucrative criminal activity that spans borders throughout the world. The different ports of entry, airports, and rail and road networks are all essential links for the supply of drugs. This highlights that our enforcement partnership with CBSA is critical to the RCMP's efforts to combat illicit drugs and keep our communities safe from harm," said RCMP Chief Superintendent, George Stephenson, who is the Deputy Criminal Operations Officer for “K” Division.
“We’re extremely concerned about this and it really takes an international collaboration to stop the importation of this,” said Schiavetta. “We’re extremely concerned in the law enforcement family that we may see domestic synthesis of fentanyl from precursors and that's something that we’re certainly alive to and working with all levels of government to try and regulate that.”
Police have notified the Medical Examiner’s Office to be on the lookout for the drug and say it is a priority to keep it off of Canadian streets.
“There is no known application where carfentanil would be safe for human use or consumption so it is unsure as to what the use of this was going to be and was brought into our community,” said Lai. “We were able to prevent this sort of drug from hitting our streets and I think that’s the key message we want to deliver, is that we did our job as law enforcement working as a family and we’re going to continue to do that and combat this.”
“Carfentanil and fentanyl actually do have some legitimate purposes in society and in medicine, unfortunately we’re talking about the illegal aspect of fentanyl,” said Schiavetta.
This is the second seizure of carfentanil in Vancouver by the CBSA and officials say just 20 micrograms of the drug can be fatal.
Joshua Wrenn is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 in Calgary.
