Million dollar Edmonton fentanyl lab shut down

EDMONTON- ALERT Edmonton’s organized crime and gang team has shut down a fentanyl production lab operating out of a home in southeast Edmonton.

Two people were arrested and nearly $1 million worth of drugs were seized, marking the end of an investigation that began in December.

With the help of the Edmonton Police Service’s Clandestine Lab Team, ALERT investigators executed a search warrant on the home in the city’s Silverberry neighbourhood on August 8. Once inside, they discovered a lab where fentanyl was being processed to look like heroin. More than two kilograms of processed fentanyl was seized, which, if sold as heroin, has an estimated value of $800,000.

 “We have seen street-level dealers passing off fentanyl as other drugs before, but this is one of the first times we’ve encountered a production lab specifically set up to produce fentanyl that would be sold under such false pretenses,” said Insp. Marc Cochlin, officer in charge of ALERT’s Edmonton teams. “It’s alarming to see producers harboring such a blatant disregard for the safety of their consumers and for the safety of the community as a whole.”