8 charged, more than $260,000 in drugs and cash seized in northern Alberta bust

More than a quarter of a million dollars worth of drugs and cash was seized and eight people are facing 33 charges after a drug bust in Grande Prairie, police said Thursday.

The investigation was dubbed Project Incumbent by the organized crime and gang unit of Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams Grande Prairie and targeted a “regional cocaine trafficking network.”

“Project Incumbent brought together a number of police resources in order to dismantle this drug trafficking network,” Insp. Sean Bose said in a news release Thursday.

“These arrests will prove to be a substantive hit to drug trafficking in the Grande Prairie region.”

Three search warrants were issued at three homes in the northern Alberta city and police seized $264,740 worth of cash and drugs, including:

• 1,143 grams of cocaine
• 2,931 grams of synthetic cannabis
• 1 litre of Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)
• $60,010 cash

Police said two vehicles were also seized during the searches.

As of publishing, police said three people have been arrested.

Kevin Bey, 33, from Langley, B.C., Taylor Edgren, 27, from Pitt Meadows B.C. and Jeffrey Kayser, 28, from Peterborough, Ont. have all been arrested.

Police are still looking for five suspects and it’s believed they’ve left the Grande Prairie region.

Christine Emes, 29, from Langley B.C., Joseph Poirier, 39, Preston Dougan, 24, from Calgary, Christopher Gilliat, 31, from Langley, B.C. and Matthew Hull, 30, from Duncan, B.C. are still at large.

Anyone with information on the suspects’ whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Grande Prairie is about 458 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.