Hash, pot, $115K in cash seized in Project Typhoon
'Twenty kilos, that's new to us,' says Supt. Marlene Jesso on amount of hash seized
Police in Newfoundland and Labrador seized a significant amount of drugs and money in St. John's Wednesday and arrested three people.
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and RCMP members of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU-NL) executed a search warrant at a residence in the city's east end.
Officer seized 20 kilograms of hashish, about nine kilograms of marijuana and $115,000 in cash. Married couple Sharon Jeans, 59, and Stephen Jeans, 61, along with 59-year-old Kenneth Bannister, were arrested without incident.
They are all facing charges of trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking of both resin and marijuana.
Supt. Marlene Jesso said the estimated street value of the drugs seized is around $200,000.
"The hash itself as you can see has a stamp on it, it's Black Gold 7. We believe black gold hashish comes from Afghanistan and it is actually fairly potent hash," she said.
"The wrappers, if you see the wrappers that are underneath the hashish, they're actually from Poland ... so the wrappers that were over the hashish are actually all in Polish."
Jesso said there's been some recent seizures of hash in the province. In 2013, police seized 11 kilograms, and they've had smaller seizures of two or three kilograms.
"But for 20 kilos, that's new to us," she said. "We haven't seized that much."
According to Jesso, CFSEU-NL started this investigation just a week ago after receiving some information and were able to quickly execute the search warrant, but she wouldn't comment on where the information came from.
Jesso said there's no specific information indicating any gang activity, but the investigation is ongoing.
"We don't know specifically gang affiliation here in the province, but with any kind of large drug seizure as this there's going to be organized crime involved," said Jesso.
"Bikers mafia, I mean it's coming from Afghanistan so it could be a terrorism part to play in this."
The three people arrested appeared in St. John's provincial court Thursday morning.
