Police in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland say an investigation into an international drug-trafficking ring has led to charges against three residents and an alleged associate in Japan who is linked to the Yakuza crime syndicate. A statement from the RCMP’s federal serious and organized crime team says the investigation began in August 2019, when Canada Border Services Agency intercepted a 12-kilogram shipment of methamphetamine bound for Japan. Mounties say investigators identified the Canadian-based prime suspects as three residents of Richmond, BC, south of Vancouver, and confirmed their alleged associate in Japan had ties to the transnational Yakuza organized crime syndicate. They say the BC-based group then shipped an additional shipment of seven kilograms of methamphetamine to a second alleged associate in Tokyo. RCMP say officers executed a search warrant in June 2020 at a home in Richmond, where they seized a variety of drugs, including heroin and fentanyl, along with $100,000 in US and Canadian cash, a prohibited firearm and two Taser. They say the Japanese Yakuza-linked suspect has been arrested by police in the country and charged with drug-importation offences, while the second alleged accomplice was arrested after he tried to flee through Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The three Richmond residents have been charged with multiple counts of drug-related offences, in addition to numerous firearms offences, RCMP say. Photos included in the RCMP news release show the BC-based group allegedly used large containers of protein powder to ship the methamphetamine to Japan. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 22, 2022.
