If you went just by what you see in the movies or TV, you’d think illegal drug operations were run out of dark warehouses in seedy parts town.
The reality is many are actually run out of luxury homes and hi-rise condos spread all around Metro Vancouver – including Burnaby.
Sort of a “hide in plain sight” kind of strategy that often works.
That means your next-door neighbour could be packaging and selling the drugs while you’re Netflixing and chilling.
Unsettling, isn’t it?
Take the case of a Burnaby man convicted of a raft of charges - caught in a high-end condo with more than $150,000 worth of illegal drugs, tens of thousands of dollars and a weapons cache.
Red Scorpion associate and Burnaby resident Billie Omare Kim was one of several drug-dealing, gangland cohorts snared in a multi-police agency operation at a luxury, 12th floor River Green “Five-Star Diamond” condo overlooking the Fraser River and the Richmond Olympic Oval.
Kim was found guilty last week in BC Supreme Court of 14 charges, including nine counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking the likes of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Kim was also found guilty by Madame Justice Martha Devlin of five counts of illegal firearms possession, including three handguns and two semi-automatic rifles.
Kim, the court heard, was on the 12th-floor balcony of the condo when the place was raided by police.
The condo, according to the narrative from the trial, was “sparsely furnished” and the judge commented that it was “readily apparent” that no one lived at the unit and that it was a “stash site,” referring to all the drugs, drug paraphernalia, cash and weapons found.
The court heard how Kim’s Burnaby address - 9283 Government St., was also searched, where more items connected to the drug-dealing operation were found.
There have been many other recent cases involving stash houses raided.
A 52-year-old Burnaby man was arrested back in July in relation to “one of the larger drug seizures we have seen in Metro Vancouver in recent years,” according to the Vancouver Police Department.
The VPD announced it had seized more than $4 million worth of drugs and $320,000 in cash in an investigation targeting gang activity.
“This is one of the larger drug seizures we have seen in Metro Vancouver in recent years,” Supt. Lisa Byrne said. “We believe this investigation, which ultimately led police to two major ‘stash houses,’ disrupted a significant drug-line supplying drugs in bulk.”
Byrne described the operation as organized and commercial in nature.
"These drugs were being packaged and taken via taxi to various locations throughout the city and the Lower Mainland for resale,” Byrne said.
Imagine that. Packaging up the drugs and then calling a taxi to deliver it.
And in June 2019, Burnaby RCMP released details of a mid-level drug ring that was busted operating out of highrise condos in the Metrotown and Brentwood areas.
“As the investigators continued gathering intelligence over the following months, it became apparent that this was a drug operation that was not just active in Burnaby but also in other communities in the Lower Mainland,” stated an RCMP news release.
Police executed search warrants at the two buildings and seizing two kilograms of prepackaged, street-ready drugs, bulk fentanyl and cocaine, $50,000 in cash, valuables such as watches and jewelry, and two vehicles.
Earlier in 2019, a man was convicted in connection with his role in a high-level drug operation. His job was mainly to go around and rent stash houses in high-end condo buildings in Burnaby and other Metro Vancouver areas.
In June 2018, the NOW wrote about a drug lab that was operating not in some dingy warehouse, but in a high-end apartment in the High Gate neighbourhood in South Burnaby.
The drug dealers had an arsenal of loaded firearms and were cooking up deadly drugs with Magic Bullet blenders and frying pans.
When police finally entered unit with a search warrant, they quickly backed out again after finding open foil packages of fentanyl on the kitchen counter.Decked out in hazmat suits, members of the RCMP Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement and Response Team returned to find more than 1,578 grams of the deadly drug. Fifty times more potent than heroin, a typical street level hit of fentanyl weighs about one or two grams – about as much as a grain of salt.
The apartment was being used to cut it with fillers in Magic Bullets and cook it in a frying pan to achieve the colour, texture and even smell of pebbled heroin.
Unbeknownst to their neighbours, the stove used to cook up these “highly toxic products” was also being vented directly outside of their complex, according to court documents.
That must’ve been some shock to the neighbours. Loaded weapons. Toxic drugs. Highly flammable chemicals.
- With reporting Alan Campbell, Richmond News, and Cornelia Naylor
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44
