Investigation into Okanagan ‘drug super lab’ wraps up with 11-year prison sentences

The RCMP calls it “one of the largest drug super labs in British Columbia.”

It was located in Lumby and was home to fentanyl and methamphetamine with a street value of close to $260 million when police dismantled it.

In August, 38-year-old Robyn Leigh Bryson and Trent Anton Fussi were the fifth and sixth, and final, suspects to be sent to jail in connection to the investigation.

They were both sentenced to concurrently serve 11 years in prison for the production of fentanyl and six years in prison for the production of methamphetamine.

Bryson and Fussi, who were identified as the “cooks” at the industrial-scale drug lab, also received a 10-year firearm prohibition and DNA orders.

The investigation into the criminal network surrounding the Lumby drug lab was launched by the BC RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime (FSOC) program in 2018.

Given the scale, complexity and hazardous nature posed by the lab, they called on a number of specialized BC RCMP federal policing units to assist.

That included the FSCO teams in Osoyoos and Kelowna, along with the BC RCMP’s Clandestine Laboratories Enforcement and Response team and the federal Major Projects team.

In the initial stages of the probe, federal policing investigators uncovered a large-scale ephedrine extraction along with the methamphetamine and fentanyl production lab.

They identified Bryson, Fussi, Michael McMorris, Tyson Kopp, Michael Piggott and Michael Harvey as the main suspects of the criminal operation.

The FSOC took immediate action and executed a search warrant on the property, arresting Fussi, Kopp, Piggott and Harvey, then Bryson at a later date.

According to the RCMP, the search on Oct. 18, 2018, yielded around 48 kg of ephedrine HCI, 50 kg of solutions containing ephedrine HCI, 4.5 kg of methamphetamine, 147 gallons of solutions containing methamphetamine, 10 kg of 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (ANPP), 2.95 kg of nandrolone phenylpropionate (NPP), 660 grams of fentanyl and 124.7 litres of solutions containing both fentanyl and ANPP.

“Since the vast sum of synthetic waste material found on the property posed a significant health and safety risk to local residents, the environment, and regional agriculture, major containment and cleanup efforts ensued,” the RCMP explained.

“The search and dismantling of the massive drug super lab took FSOC investigators a total of 12 days to complete, with the cost of the cleanup and disposal of the hazardous waste material totalling nearly $370,000.”

During sentencing, the court heard the value of the seized methamphetamine was estimated at $2.2 million, while the street value of the fentanyl was estimated at $256 million.