When police raided an Abbotsford home in search of evidence linked to 3D gun printing and drug trafficking, they walked into a cloud of noxious of gas.
Several details of the raid that would lead to the guilty plea and eight-year prison sentence for Tyson Santolla, 36, were revealed in a judge’s sentencing ruling published by the B.C. Supreme Court on Feb. 5.
Santolla was arrested in May of 2021 during investigation by the B.C. Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), an anti-gang unit.
The investigation led to raids that month on four homes, two in Abbotsford, two in Aldergrove. Santolla was found, with his wife and children, at a townhouse in the 30900 block of Westridge Place in Abbotsford.
When officers entered the home, they discovered that a barrel of iodine had been dumped into the shower drain and toilet in the townhouse’s master bathroom.
“This caused the townhouse to be filled with contaminated water and noxious gas,” Justice Warren B. Milman wrote in his sentencing ruling, handed down in the Abbotsford court house on Jan. 30.
The search found 3D-printed Glock handgun parts, as well as parts for other handguns, along with the materials for making them. The CFSEU seized two 3D printers during the raids.
“At least two of the handgun parts found were determined to be capable of being assembled into a functioning firearm,” Milman noted.
In the garage of the townhouse, police found 316.5 grams of the powerful opioid fentanyl, along with 1.785 kg of methamphetamine, stored in containers on the shelves.
Although Santolla pleaded guilty, the ruling indicates he only admitted that “he had some measure of control over the drugs,” and knew they were there, although he did not admit to knowing precisely what they were or their exact quantity.
Santolla was charged in 2023 after a lengthy investigation, and the charges have been winding their way through pre-trial hearings for several years, before Santolla pleaded guilty to three of the five charges he was facing on June 16, 2025.
A joint submission, agreed to by both Santolla’s lawyers and the Crown prosecutors, saw him sentenced to three years for manufacturing a restricted firearm, four years for possession of methamphetamine, and five years for possession of the fentanyl.
Some of the counts are to be served consecutively, giving him the full sentence of eight years.
Eight years is a fairly long sentence in Canada for a crime that does not involve direct violence, especially in the case of a guilty plea, but Milman’s ruling noted that both manufacturing illegal firearms and trafficking in controlled substances “cause grave harm to society,” justifying the long sentence.
Sentences involving fentanyl trafficking have also become stricter in recent years due to the death toll the drug has taken on users.
Milman’s ruling gives some of Santolla’s background, including his previous criminal convictions in Canada and Australia.
After growing up in the Fraser Valley, Santolla left school after Grade 10 and spent time in Australia, where he was convicted of possession of a marketable quantity of controlled substances in 2008.
Australian media reports indicate that Santolla was one of three men were arrested in the town of Surfers Paradise and charged for allegedly smuggling 3,400 tablets of ecstasy inside a Sony PlayStation. Customs officers in Sydney had detected the tablets, inserted a listening device in the old video game console, and tracked it.
After Santolla was convicted, he failed to turn up for sentencing, and fled back to Canada, where he was arrested for travelling with a false passport – apparently that of his brother.
He was extradited back to Australia and in July 2013, sentenced to six years in prison for the drug crime and another six months for failing to appear in court.
He was released on parole by 2016 and returned to Canada, at the age of 26. After that, he apparently worked for his family business until the 2021 raid.
Santolla has been on bail for five years awaiting trial, which means he will have no time deducted from his sentence for pre-trial custody.
According to Milman, Santolla has been with his wife since they were teenagers and has three children. He was described as the “sole source of support for his family.”