Group facing charges after RCMP discovers huge drug lab in BC Interior

Six men are facing charges after Mounties uncovered one of British Columbia’s largest illegal drug labs in Lumby.

Five of the men are from BC and one is from Alberta.

Several RCMP units, including Federal Serious and Organized Crime officers from Kelowna and Osoyoos, executed a warrant at a property on Trinity Valley Road in Lumby on Oct. 19, 2018.

Police found huge quantities of drugs and chemicals, including approximately:

• 48 kilograms of ephedrine HCl

• 50 kilograms of solutions containing ephedrine HCl

• 4.5 kilograms of methamphetamine HCl

• 147 gallons (556 litres) of solutions containing methamphetamine

• 10 kilograms of 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (ANPP)

• 2.95 kilograms of nandrolone phenylpropionate (NPP)

• 660 grams of fentanyl

• 124.7 litres of solutions containing both fentanyl and ANPP

ANPP is a direct precursor to fentanyl, police said, and NPP is an androgen and anabolic steroid.

“In this instance, there was a very large amount of synthetic waste by-product that had yet to be disposed of which posed a significant risk to the local farms and residents living in the area,” said Supt. Bert Ferreira.

“Mitigating environmental contamination was one of the key factors in the timing of the warrant execution.”

Because the lab was one of the largest of its kind ever seen in BC, the waste removal operation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Michael McMorris, Robyn Bryson, Trent Fussi, Michael Harvey, Tyson Kopp and Michael Piggott all face charges of unlawfully possessing chemicals and equipment, possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and production of a controlled substance.

Bryson and Fussi, however, fled police and remain on the run.

McMorris, Harvey, Kopp and Piggott are scheduled to appear at Kelowna Law Courts on Tuesday.