City man accused of selling tainted pills, operating drug distribution centre out of home

One man is facing charges after Mounties seized $1.5 million worth of cash and drugs from a north Winnipeg home, including more than 7,000 counterfeit pills disguised as over-the-counter painkillers.

“This target almost had a little distribution network out of his residence,” said Supt. Jeff Asmundson, who oversaw a three-month RCMP investigation dubbed Operation Deepwater.

“It was a bit of a production company, as well as a stash location and the proceeds were in the house.”

The pills, which were found to contain a mixture of heroin and a veterinary sedative called medetomidine, prompted health officials to release a drug alert — warning the combination posed potent and dangerous risks for users.

Asked about the purpose of disguising the counterfeit pills as legitimate medication, Asmundson said it is believed they were “marketed to the public to try to gain new users.”

“Drug dealers have no ethics and they will take advantage of people’s addictions,” he said, noting the pills were intentionally made to look like Percocet, a common prescription painkiller.

“Heroin, obviously, traditionally has been a needle drug and (for) some people it has a negative connotation, whereas a pill has a much less negative connotation and people are more likely to take it.”

He said it was the first time RCMP had identified the combination of heroin and medetomidine in Manitoba, but the mixture has been seen in other jurisdictions, including British Columbia and Quebec.

Street Connections, a harm-reduction agency that offers free drug testing under the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, issued an alert in mid-February that it had identified medetomidine in substances sold under the name “down.”

It warned naloxone — the medication commonly used to counteract opioid overdoses — is not effective against the tranquilizer because it is a different class of drug.

Medetomidine is up to 300 times stronger than xylazine, another veterinary sedative frequently cut with fentanyl and other opioids. Its effects include a prolonged depression of the central nervous system that can decrease a person’s heart rate and can cause them to lose consciousness or stop breathing. It was first detected in Canada in 2021, Street Connections said.

Over the course of Operation Deepwater, officers with the Manitoba Integrated Law Enforcement Team uncovered an interprovincial drug trafficking network operating from Winnipeg. Cocaine and other drugs distributed from the Manitoba capital were supporting drug trafficking activities throughout the province, Asmundson said.

RCMP, working in collaboration with tactical officers from the Winnipeg Police Service, searched two residences in the Amber Gates neighbourhood on Feb. 5.

In addition to the pills, officers seized nine kilograms of cocaine, four kilograms of marijuana, 28 grams of crack cocaine, $87,000 in cash and an assortment of trafficking paraphernalia, including a money counter and a pill press. Police also recovered two Rolex watches.

RCMP said the approximate value of the seizure totals more than $1.5 million.

Investigators believe some of the illicit drugs were brought into Manitoba from other jurisdictions across Canada, while the cocaine likely originated in Colombia, Asmundson said.

Anthony Tran, 35, of Winnipeg, has been charged with two counts of trafficking and possessing the proceeds of crime over $5,000.

Court records show Tran previously pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking in July of 2010, for which he received a conditional sentence order of two years less a day.

Asmundson said he could not confirm whether other suspects might be charged as a result of the ongoing investigation.

“Enforcement agencies always try to gain as much information from any search warrant or execution,” he said. “We will be… documenting this in intelligence reports and sharing it with our partners across the province and the country.”

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe thanked police for their efforts.

“This shows that there is nothing more important than the safety of our communities. Manitobans have has enough of these toxic drugs getting into our communities. They know that drugs bring violence, they bring disruption in community and they have no place in our province,” he said.

Tran remains in police custody, with a future court appearance slated for March 26, RCMP said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca