Nanaimo RCMP made a proactive traffic stop that ended with two arrests made on gun and drug trafficking charges.
At around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18th, in the 4000-block of Departure Bay Road, a police officer noticed a white Toyota Tacoma driving without a front license plate.
According to police, the officer followed the vehicle and ran the license plate while pursuing and found out the truck had no insurance on it.
The truck was pulled over by the officer who identified the three occupants of the truck as active members in the Nanaimo drug trade and he reported that he saw a large hunting knife in the vehicle.
Police say backup was called to assist and together they searched the vehicle.
The 38-year-old driver was reportedly found to be in the possession of a large quantity of unknown pills thought to be illicit drugs and several hundred dollars in cash. He was arrested on drug trafficking related charges.
Police say in the vehicle they found a large tool bag with an unloaded tactical semi-automatic pistol grip shotgun, face masks, zap straps, and other items commonly used in the commission of and to carry out violent crimes and what Nanaimo RCMP call “drug rips”.
Another bag was found by police which contained several cell phones, a baseball bat and more “suspected illegal pills”.
The two passengers of the truck, a 27-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were also arrested on weapon and drug trafficking charges.
The male passenger also had several outstanding warrants in his name for weapons charges.
Police say the truck was towed from the scene and the three suspects were processed and released, pending a court date on September 5th.
“In situations where a large quantity of unknown drugs, various prohibited weapons and multiple offenders are involved, it is not uncommon for officers to release the suspects on Undertakings that compel them to appear in court at a later date,” said R/Cst Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.
“This affords the investigators time to analyze the evidence, gather expert evidence, prepare their reports and then forward their findings to Crown for charge approval.”
