By paNOW Staff

One day after legalization, police combined forces unit announces sizeable marijuana bust in P.A.

Oct 18, 2018 | 1:53 PM

Just one day after legalization, officers with the Prince Albert RCMP and local Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit have announced around half-a-million dollars’ worth of cannabis was seized in the Prince Albert area. 

Police recovered a significant amount of marijuana from a storage locker in the city earlier this week. A search of three homes and a second storage locker in Saskatoon turned up cannabis resin [also known as shatter], crack cocaine, cash and a restricted firearm. In total, police recovered 4,244 individual baggies of shatter with a street value up to $290,000; 46.5 pounds of cannabis marijuana with a street value of up to $230,000, 31 syringes of cannabis resin with a value of $3,100, one ounce of crack cocaine valued at $2,000 and $4,700 in cash. Officers also seized a Ruger .357 handgun. 

In Saskatoon, Aurel Pintea, 55, and Laszlo Ciupac, 51, are facing a number of criminal charges relating to drugs and weapons. RCMP say neither has a license for medical marijuana under the federal government’s new legislation. 

Both men are scheduled to appear in court in Saskatoon on Monday.

Rob King with the RCMP said while the bust occured after a very brief investigation it had nothing to do with legalization on Wednesday.

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“It wasn’t planned or had nothing to do with the date of legalization whatsoever,” he told paNOW. “When you’re looking at drugs in this sort of quantity, they’re illegal. This is much more than personal use, they’re unregulated and are not going through Health Canada for approval.”

He added the large stash may have been destined for the North.

“Anything is possible; most of it was located in the Prince Albert area and P.A. is a hub so could this have been distributed throughout the whole quarter of the province? Absolutely,” he said.

With files from Glenn Hicks.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow