The largest seizure of ketamine in the country's history is displayed during a news conference in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday January 26, 2011.Darryl Dyck/ The Globe and Mail
Five men are facing drug charges in British Columbia after police and border officers made what they're calling Canada's biggest-ever seizure of the tranquilizer ketamine.
RCMP say the substance nicknamed Special K was found concealed in a shipping container that arrived in Metro Vancouver from Hong Kong last month.
"The more than 1,000 kilograms that have been seized in this investigation represents well over one million doses," Supt. Brian Cantera told reporters Wednesday.
He said the substance had a value of more than $15-million.
The five men were arrested in Richmond and include three Chinese nationals, all in their 50s, and two Vancouver residents.
Ketamine, which has hallucinogenic effects, is illegal to import into Canada and classified in the same category as cocaine and heroin, said Supt. Cantera, who is in charge of the RCMP's drug enforcement program in B.C.
Mounties say documentation for the shipment identified the goods as 402 cartons of coffee mugs.
But when agents for the Canada Border Services Agency examined the contents they found some cartons also had bags of white powder that tests confirmed was ketamine.
The drug causes amnesia, depression, long-term memory loss and is often mixed into ecstasy pills, Cantera said.
He said that after the men were arrested on Dec. 11, Mounties searched two locations in Richmond and found a pill press, binding agents and other materials commonly associated with synthetic drug labs.