MONTREAL -- Gatineau police announced this week that searches carried out last Thursday at three residences in the Aylmer and Hull sectors allowed them to seize dangerous drugs, including fentanyl, and child pornography material.
Several people were arrested.
The Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau (SPVG) launched an investigation last month after hearing about an overdose death.
The investigators were able to establish a link between five people who were trafficking narcotics, and the SPVG police officers searched three residences simultaneously.
Four men and a woman were arrested and questioned by investigators. The seizures include cocaine, cannabis, hashish, crystal meth, a drug called "purple," methamphetamine tablets and others that may contain fentanyl -- as well as money.
The SPVG said "purple" is a mixture of fentanyl and heroin consumed through an injection most of the time. It is manufactured in clandestine laboratories and the drug's presence in Gatineau has been known for about two years.
At the same time, the SPVG is reporting that an investigation was already underway at one of the addresses searched in connection to a 46-year-old man who had access to child pornography sites. The SPVG police officers therefore searched for computer equipment.
The man was arrested for luring a child and for sending sexually explicit material to a minor. He appeared in the Court of Quebec on these charges and it was learned that he had previously been targeted in an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2020.
