A 27-year-old Burnaby man has been sentenced to nine years in prison in relation to what police have called a "sophisticated" drug-trafficking ring spanning across Western Canada.
Nikola Galic pleaded guilty last month to charges of drug trafficking and conspiracy.
The charges are linked to a trafficking operation police said involved transporting kilogram levels of cocaine and methamphetamine from British Columbia to various parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Galic had been the primary focus of a joint police investigation led by the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime (FSOC) unit, according to an RCMP news release this week.
After the yearlong investigation, officers raided properties in B.C. (Burnaby and Vancouver) and Saskatchewan (Weyburn and Moose Jaw) on May 11 and 12, according to an earlier police news release.
Search warrants were executed at two Burnaby properties, one in the 3800 block of Evergreen Place by North Road and another in the 6600 block of Dunblane Avenue in Metrotown, according to police.
In total, police seized 28.17 kilograms of methamphetamine, 8.95 kg of cocaine and 3.36 kg of MDMA, according to the earlier release.
Tests revealed the seized cocaine was as pure as 97 percent, police said at the time.
Ten people were arrested, including two in Burnaby: Galic, then 25, and Zlatko Mandaric, then 41.
Galic, who has been in custody since his arrest, according to police, pleaded guilty to one count each of trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime, conspiracy to commit trafficking and conspiracy to possess property obtained by crime.
"…When you can arrest those that lead large trafficking operations – it truly dismantles and disrupts dangerous, illicit drugs coming into Saskatchewan and other provinces for the long run," RCMP Staff Sgt. Richard Pickering said in this week's release.
"I am incredibly proud of the joint investigation and collaboration with our FSOC investigators, partner police agencies, and everyone else that worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure a conviction could be brought to fruition – without them, we couldn't take these dangerous individuals out of our communities."
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