A 52-year-old Esquimalt woman is facing multiple charges after the VicPD Crime Reduction Unit recovered thousands of stolen items, making it one of the largest property seizures in VicPD’s history.
Police executed a search warrant on a home in the 600-block of Admirals Road after a two-month long investigation. Officers seized thousands of items believed to be obtained through shoplifting, theft from vehicles and break and enters.
Stolen property was also located in a shipping container, multiple storage lockers and within three vehicles – which were also seized.
During the search, police also found four guns, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, fentanyl pills and $17, 455 in cash inside the home. The drugs combined value was about $53,000.
A secret room was also located which was accessed through a hidden panel in the back of a bedroom closet.
“As with any investigation that involves large amounts of property, there are good news stories that come out of the investigators’ hard work. Not only was stolen property located from a file in 2004, a diary from 1939 was located in a shipping container. After some research, the daughter of the person who wrote the diary was located in Aldergrove and investigators have arranged to get the diary back to her,” said Victoria Police spokesperson Cst. Matt Rutherford.
Lorraine Anderson, who is a Norteno associate, is facing charges of unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of property obtained by crime.
The Norteños are a street gang in northern California with a presence in the federal prison system. Their emblems and clothing are associated with the colour red and the number 14 is used in tattoos and graffiti because “N” is the 14th letter of the alphabet.
Police say the investigation has now revealed that there are other storage lockers which investigators are following up on. Anderson remains in custody.
