VANCOUVER - Three B.C. men have been charged in what police are calling a multimillion-dollar drug scheme in which cocaine was smuggled into Canada from the U.S. and ecstasy was sent back across the American border.
The investigation stretched from Regina to B.C. and involved the RCMP, the American department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police say cocaine was being smuggled across unmanned border crossings in southern Saskatchewan and was destined for B.C., while the ecstasy was headed to the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Drug charges have been laid against two Vernon-area men, 25-year-old Brock Ernest Palfrey and 50-year-old William Bruce Larsen, and 28-year-old Ronald Charles Learning of Golden.
RCMP officers in Regina also seized 30 kilograms of cocaine and 100,000 tablets of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, with police putting the total street value of the drugs at $2.3 million.
RCMP say the investigation is continuing and more charges are expected.
