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Burnaby traffic stops yield drugs, $20K in cash

Cannabis consumption is legal in Canada, but smoking behind the wheel within “noseshot” of police is a bad idea – especially if you’re carrying giant wads of cash you don’t want police to seize. That’s what one Burnaby driver learned last month.
seized
Some of the nearly $20,000 seized by Burnaby RCMP during a recent traffic stop.

Cannabis consumption is legal in Canada, but smoking behind the wheel within “noseshot” of police is a bad idea – especially if you’re carrying giant wads of cash you don’t want police to seize.

That’s what one Burnaby driver learned last month.

Officers were patrolling in the 5000 block of Imperial Street in the afternoon of June 25, when the smell of burnt cannabis drew them to an SUV in a nearby parkade, according to a police press release.

The driver was handed a 24-hour driving prohibition after failing an impairment test, and a search of his car turned up marijuana, white pills of an unknown substance, two cell phones and nearly $20,000 in cash, all of which was seized.

An investigation is ongoing, police said.

During another traffic stop two days later, officers patrolling the area of Union Street and Gilmore Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. “noted several indicators of street level drug trafficking" while speaking to the driver, according to police.

That sparked a search of the vehicle, which revealed more than thirty baggies of what is believed to be cocaine, heroin and fentanyl, police said.

Spokesperson Cpl. Mike Kalanj described the seizures as “great proactive work being done throughout the detachment.”