Drugs

VICTORIA - A painter at a B.C. shipyard was denied government security clearance partly because he is Facebook friends with people linked to outlaw bikers and drug traffickers. (The Province)

KAMLOOPS - RCMP have confirmed that a man killed in an on-going drug war in the region was a victim of mistaken identity. On Jan. 23, Rex Gill and Cody Mathieu were shot and killed at the Kamloops Comfort Inn and Suites. According to Kamloops RCMP, the investigation has confirmed Mathieu was an intended target but Gill was gunned down accidentally. (CBC)

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One dead after Friday's shooting in Brocklehurst

SURREY - At the end of a tranquil cul-de-sac in a pleasant neighbourhood, a tall stucco house overlooks a well-kept lawn and lush flowerbeds. The home is in the Metro Vancouver city of Surrey, where the average price of a detached property is $1.1 million. (The Province)

Times have changed in the Yonge St.- Eglinton Ave. area. Throw three massive temporary homeless shelters for the drug addicted into the mix — in the Roehampton Hotel and adjoining buildings on Broadway Ave. — and suddenly it has become a dangerous, syringe-ridden, crime-infested hellhole. (Toronto Sun)

VANCOUVER - Thomas Gabriel Saul, a 35-year-old New Westminster resident, was targeted in an Aug. 21 shooting in Burnaby, and again this week in a shooting on Tuesday in Surrey's Fraser Heights area. (The Province)

Mounties in the Fraser Valley say they have shut down a significant local drug line linked to the Brothers Keepers gang. Chilliwack RCMP’s crime reduction unit began its investigation into the dial-a-dope line earlier this year, quickly learning that the traffickers were allegedly operating in several jurisdictions. (The Province)

A total of 32 people were arrested in a series of early morning raids on Thursday targeting drug-trafficking networks in eastern Quebec and New Brunswick with alleged ties to the Hells Angels. The raids, conducted by the Sûreté du Québec, were carried out in 20 different communities across the two provinces, including in the Lower St. Lawrence region, the Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands. (CBC)

This week saw two more mass shootings in the U.S. They seem to have become so commonplace that, though we are horrified at the loss of innocent life, we are to a point inured to the emotional devastation.  (True North)

VANCOUVER - Notorious Red Scorpion gangster Jarrod Bacon is back behind bars after testing positive for cocaine in violation of the special conditions imposed on him by the Parole Board of Canada. (The Province)

A joint task force between the DEA and Homeland Security Department netted one of the largest busts in Customs and Border Protection history Friday after more than 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, as well as fentanyl and heroin was seized along the southwest border between the U.S. and Mexico. (New York Daily News)