A suspected drug-dealing operation was halted in Abbotsford on Monday night (March 23) after police arrested three people carrying 73 grams of cocaine and more than $4,500 in cash.
The incident occurred at approximately 9 p.m., with Abbotsford police apprehending two men and a woman in their twenties in the area of Gillis Avenue and McCallum Road.
During the arrest, police confiscated the large amount of cocaine, which is more than 20 times the dose that killed the real-life version of Cocaine Bear in 1985 and later inspired the film of the same name.
The Abbotsford Police Department also seized the 2014 Honda Civic being driven by the suspects and is currently pursuing an application for the vehicle to be forfeited as an offence-related property.
British Columbia is home to the lowest percentage of cocaine users among Canadian provinces, according to the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.
The group’s 2019 study revealed that only 0.8 per cent of B.C. residents over the age of 15 are reported to have used cocaine, which is far lower than the 2.6 per cent of Albertans.
Cocaine trafficking incidents have also significantly fallen since then, with Statistics Canada reporting that the number of B.C. cases dropped from 1,458 in 2019 to 770 in 2023.