For the second time in a week, Prince George RCMP have arrested senior citizens for trafficking prescription drugs.
As reported in the Thursday edition of The Citizen, the RCMP raided a home in the 2600 block of Quince Street and found a large amount of cash, drug paraphernalia and quantities of various medications like Hydromorphone/Dilaudid.
It was learned on Thursday that the two suspects facing charges in the raid are aged 79 and 75 years.
"It had nothing to do with the other one. It was just the next thing they [investigators] got information on, and the information sources had nothing to do with the first case," said Prince George RCMP spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass, referring to the first case of elders trafficking prescription pills.
That incident was dated Nov. 16 in which men aged 81 and 75 were busted for allegedly running a similar drug trafficking operation out of a home in the area of 10th Avenue and Douglas Street.
In the most recent case, city bylaw officers also attended and put a Do Not Occupy order on the home due to major modifications made to the structure. Heavy steel bars had been fixed over the windows and doors.
City officials spent Thursday checking into the fortifications.
They found that the original bylaw used to justify the Do Not Occupy order was incorrectly applied.
"They were selling drugs but not producing the drugs there, and our bylaw pertains to growing marijuana or clandestine drug labs, not the act of only selling drugs," said City of Prince George bylaw services manager Guy Gusdal. "The rules we will be applying will be under the building code so those modifications are now under review by that department to check for points of noncompliance."
