Saint John, New Brunswick
Canada Border Services Agency / Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are committed to keeping harmful substances out of Canadian communities.
In early January 2022, more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine was seized by border services officers in Saint John, New Brunswick (NB), following a sophisticated drug smuggling investigation by the CBSA and RCMP. The narcotics were discovered concealed inside the cargo of a marine container; this represents the largest quantity of cocaine seized from a marine shipping container in Atlantic Canada in three decades. The CBSA has valued the seizure at approximately $198,000,000.
The operation began in the fall of 2021, when CBSA Intelligence received information about exported shipments originating from Central America. At that time, the CBSA and the RCMP worked together to move the investigation forward.
In December 2021, CBSA began tracking a marine shipping container of interest which contained goods imported by a Greater Toronto Area (GTA) resident and exported from Central America, with a final destination of Saint John, NB.
