VANCOUVER -- Mounties in Kelowna arrested three 16-year-old boys from Ontario while executing a search warrant late last month. No adults were arrested during the search, during which police seized drugs, guns and $30,000 in cash.
Officers conducted the search on Feb. 28 at a building in the 1200 block of Ellis Street in Kelowna, near its intersection with Clement Avenue.
According to a release from Kelowna RCMP, the search was related to a "street-level drug trafficking investigation targeting a provincial threat crime group with suspected ties to the current conflict in the Lower Mainland."
In addition to the cash, officers seized "undisclosed quantities" of what they believed to be fentanyl and cocaine, which were packaged for "immediate distribution on the street," police said.
Officers also confiscated two loaded handguns during the search, police said.
The three teenagers were released into the care of the provincial Ministry of Children and Family Development "on strict conditions," according to police. The boys were scheduled to appear in court in Kelowna.
"All three Ontario teens are well known to Canadian law enforcement agencies," police said, adding that the crime group targeted in the search has ties "as far reaching as coast to coast in Canada."
