3 men charged after drug lab discovered in Richmond home: police

The Vancouver Police Department provided this photo of a drug lab in a home that was dismantled during a trafficking investigation.

Vancouver police say three men have been charged after a months-long investigation led them to a drug lab inside a Richmond home.

In a news release Wednesday, the Vancouver Police Department said the lab was producing fentanyl and other street drugs.

Police launched an investigation in January 2023, hoping to target a group that was making and trafficking drugs throughout the Lower Mainland. That investigation led them to a lab in a home in Richmond, which police dismantled in April 2023. At the time, police said they seized more than seven kilograms of suspected fentanyl, 800 grams of methamphetamine and $39,000 in cash from the site.

"People continue to die in record numbers from toxic drugs that are manufactured and sold by organized criminals," Insp. Phil Heard with VPD's organized crime section said in a statement Wednesday. "As long as this is happening, we will focus our investigative energy on rooting out the people responsible for fueling the toxic drug crisis."

Since then, police said, three men have been charged in connection to their alleged roles in that criminal operation.

Jason Conrad, who is from Duncan, was charged with trafficking fentanyl, four counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and benzodiazepine, and weapons offences.

Meanwhile, Liam MacRae and Erin Fineday, who are both from Richmond, were charged with production of fentanyl, trafficking of fentanyl and two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine.