After checking a suspicious vehicle in Revelstoke, members of BC Highway Patrol’s Traffic Safety Unit found approximately $11,000 dollars and liquor stacked floor to ceiling.
Police said they noticed that the seats behind the driver had been removed and that it was full of boxes with a blanket over top.
The police looked up the occupants of the van, a man and woman from Calgary,  on police databases and they were the subjects of prior criminal activity in the Lower Mainland.
The suspects were arrested and provided legal counsel, officers searched the Toyota minivan and discovered, $100,000 worth of liquor, $11,000 in Canadian currency and small quantities of suspected and Fentanyl.
The police said they believe this was not the first time the couple had taken large quantities of alcohol into the province.
The RCMP believes the intent was to avoid BC’s liquor tax and re-sell the liquor to private purchasers, or illegal casinos in the Lower Mainland.
“The mandate of BCHP’s TSU-PDS is to conduct high-volume traffic safety enforcement and, often, intelligence-led policing results in the interruption, interdiction and apprehension of travelling criminals,” said Inspector Dale Carr, Officer in Charge of BCHP’s Special Traffic Operations.”
“Frequently, investigators will find wanted persons, stolen property, drugs, weapons, cash and other contraband. By removing these individuals from our highways and disrupting their activity, we prevent this type of criminal behaviour from continuing and it is one of many ways we are making our highways safer together.”
Police say both occupants were released pending further investigation.
