About 1M doses of meth seized after driver flees inspection at B.C. border

A recent border search netted enough of an illicit substance to provide approximately a million doses.

The substance was seized in October, the Canada Border Services Agency said in a news release issued months later.

CBSA said a solo traveller, who has not been publicly identified, arrived in Canada from the U.S. by car, using a crossing in Surrey.

Border agents screened the driver, but when they went to inspect the vehicle, the driver "fled the port of entry at high speed," according to a news release issued Wednesday.

Those agents contacted the RCMP, and officers tracked down the vehicle and brought the driver back to the crossing, the agency said.

The vehicle was searched, and officers allege they found "several larger commercially sealed bags containing a white crystalline substance" in the trunk.

While the substance was not tested at that point, CBSA said, a dog trained to detect narcotics indicated the substance was illicit.

The driver was arrested for smuggling and for fleeing the border crossing, CBSA said. It is not clear whether the driver has been charged since their arrest.

The RCMP's Federal Serious and Organized Crime Border Enforcement Team is still investigating the case.

A photo provided by the CBSA and B.C. RCMP shows a CBSA drug detector dog, along with total of 100 kilograms of methamphetamine officers say was seized at a B.C. border crossing.

According to officials, the substance turned out to be the stimulant drug methamphetamine, and there were 100 kilograms of it in total.

Also known as meth or crystal meth, the substance is often sold on the street in 0.1-gram doses, meaning the amount seized is the equivalent of one million doses of that size.

A photo provided by the CBSA and B.C. RCMP shows a bag full of what officers say is methamphetamine seized at a B.C. border crossing.

In a 2007 report, the Canadian Department of Justice said there was a "growing concern" about the drug's use, in part due to the violent outbursts reported in some users.

Chronic use can impact the immune system, and there are other short- and long-term health impacts noted in those who use the substance regularly.

At the time, the cost for a 0.1-gram dose of the highly addictive substance was about $10 to $20.

While fentanyl and its analogues are the drugs most often referenced in reports from the B.C. Coroners Service, methamphetamine is one of the top four illicit drugs detected in fatal overdoses in the province.

According to the latest data available, which was published in December and looked at 2,709 deaths reported between 2018 and October 2021, meth was found in the systems of nearly 40 per cent of those who died of illicit drug overdose. 

Fentanyl and analogues were a factor in 86.8 per cent of those deaths, either on their own or in combination with other drugs.

Cocaine was found in 47.9 per cent of the deceased.