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Cocaine Was Diluted With Pig Deworming Drug: Police

Cocaine Was Cut With Pig Deworming Drug: Police

Cocaine seized from three alleged high-ranking members of a B.C. gang was laced with a drug used to treat pigs, said police.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit held a news conference Wednesday to announce the seizure of more than $5,000 in cash, $400,000 worth of drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, oxycontin and a press used to form bricks of cocaine after it is cut with a substance dubbed "buff."

The "buff" was the drug phenacetin, used to dilute the cocaine to increase profit, explained Sgt. Lindsey Houghton to The Province. Phenacetin was once a pain reliever and is now used to deworm pigs, said the newspaper.

The drug trafficking investigation saw one man taken into custody outside an apartment building in Langley, B.C. on July 22. Two other men arrived in a vehicle while officers were still on the scene, said Houghton.

He says one of them was arrested and the other fled on foot but was caught several hours later with the help of a police dog unit and a helicopter.

On the following day, Houghton says officers executed a search warrant at an apartment that was being used as a drug processing and repackaging facility.

Houghton says the men aged 23, 25 and 47 belong to the violent 856 Gang, which is named for the phone prefix in the Aldergrove area but involves associates in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and Ontario.

With files from The Canadian Press

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