Local police forces are reportedly making the deadly drug Fentanyl a top priority, as it proliferates in drug-dealing circles in the area.
Fentanyl, a highly dangerous opioid around 40 times more potent than heroin, has been wreaking havoc in western Canada for years. But a series of recent seizures of large amounts of the drug in Greater Montreal is heightening concerns that the drug is becoming more established here in Quebec.
La Presse reports that police seized 6,765 tablets of Fentanyl during an organized-crime raid in Laval on June 21. It was originally thought that the pills were methamphetamines, but tests confirmed that they were instead Fentanyl.
The raid comes less than six months after a February police raid in l'Assomption from three different labs resulted in the seizure of a similar amount of Fentanyl. In recent months, two Fentanyl-related overdoses in Greater Montreal have been reported, one of which was fatal.
Montreal police have publicly downplayed the significance of these recent raids, but the increased presence of the drug in the area is worrisome for law enforcement, who look to the drug's preponderance in the western provinces. In British Columbia, where Fentanyl use is the highest, 914 people died using the drug last year alone.