Thousands of dollars of common household goods were seized when a retail theft ring was shut down in Surrey last month.
Mounties seized consumer products while executing a search warrant on March 24, at a business in the 10600-block of King George Boulevard.
The search turned up items including batteries, cosmetics, Wonder Bras, sunglasses, pens, gum and baby formula, police said. They did not provide an exact dollar amount for the items recovered.
Officers raided the business after gathering information that suggested its operators were buying stolen goods from vulnerable people in the area, then reselling them to make a profit.
The investigation is ongoing, and police are working with those in the retail industry to determine the source of the items. The City of Surrey is investigating allegations of business licence violations.
The Surrey sting came just months after a massive operation of a similar nature was uncovered in Vancouver. In October, police in that city recovered $50,000 worth of baby formula stolen from local drug stores.
Police said the stolen goods were set to be shipped to China for a large profit, where the $30 tubs would sell on the streets for as much as $300.
Earlier this year, a CTV News hidden camera investigation revealed how some of the shoplifting schemes work.
Large-scale operations are often based around an individual buyer – called a "fence" – who uses a predatory method to convince others to do the stealing for them. Fences look for vulnerable residents, often drug addicts, and pay them 10 cents on the dollar for items they steal from local stores.
In some cases they will even buy drugs for their hired thieves, as long as it keeps them stealing, Vancouver police told CTV. The VPD has assigned three officers specifically to bring down predatory fencing operations. The team has recovered millions in stolen goods, and closed or suspended dozens of businesses.
Surrey Mounties said they'd worked with the Vancouver anti-fencing team in their investigation.
Anyone with information on retail theft operations in Surrey is asked to contact RCMP at 604-599-0502 or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
