A search warrant executed on a 130-acre property in the Markerville area turned up a wealth of drugs, weapons, and stolen property last Wednesday.
RCMP from Sylvan Lake, Innisfail, Blackfalds and Red Deer — numbering more than 100 — spent all day and night scouring the property.
A Mercedes, dirt bike and trailer were among the large-scale stolen items seized. Drugs including methamphetamine, cocaine, steroids and GHB were also removed along with several firearms.
The RCMP’s Explosives Disposal Unit out of Edmonton was called in in the evening to seize several explosive devices known as “rail torpedos”. The devices were removed without incident.
Two men and a woman were arrested on site, and will be publicly named once they’ve been formally charged.
RCMP said intelligence shared between detachments in Red Deer and Lloydminster led to two search warrants being carried out in Lloydminster and Kitscoty on the same day as the Markerville-area search.
Those searches turned up methamphetamine, a sawed-off shotgun and several electronic devices police say serve as evidence in the Markerville-area investigation.
Two men and a woman were arrested at the site of the Lloydminster search and charged with various weapons and drug charges. No seizures were made in Kitscoty.
The Markerville-area search was carried out following a months-long investigation by an inter-agency Priority Crimes Task Force made up of RCMP members from Sylvan Lake, Red Deer, Innisfail and Blackfalds.
Police Dog Service Units, an RCMP Emergency Response Team and a Special Tactical Operations Team helped execute the search warrant.
The Priority Crimes Task Force is continuing to work with RCMP in Lloydminster on both area’s investigations. Police say further information will be released as it becomes available.
The investigations fulfill the Task Force’s mandate of sharing intelligence and communication strategies among its participating detachments in a bid to reduce area crime.