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Police bust Nanaimo drug houses, arrest man charged with manslaughter

Dec 1, 2016 | 1:59 PM

NANAIMO — Drugs, weapons and stolen property have been seized and a man already charged with manslaughter is in custody, after busts on two Nanaimo homes RCMP are calling the “scourge of the local communities.”

Const. Gary O’Brien says search warrants were used on two homes, in the 300 block of Ninth Street and 13000 block of Cedar Road, on Tuesday. O’Brien says because they knew there were weapons in the homes and one was a suspected drug lab, the Emergency Response Team and drug lab team were called in. He says six people at the Cedar home were arrested and one at the Ninth Street location.

“Of note at the Ninth Street was 40-year-old Colin Lamontagne,” said O’Brien. “He has been arrested and charged and is presently in custody for aggravated assault, forcible confinement, and breach of his recognizance.”

Lamontagne is currently facing a charge of manslaughter in relation to the death of a Victoria man in April 2015. A B.C.-wide warrant was also issued for Lamontagne in Jan. 2015 in connection with a bust on two homes in Nanaimo and Ladysmith. Police allegedly found loaded handguns, four industrial barrels of GHB and a homemade pipe bomb during those searches.

O’Brien says having Lamontagne back in custody is quite significant.

“Understandly both of these homes were the scourge of the local communities,” he said. “We work very closely and we listen to the concerns and based on that, the public I think recognizes it takes some time so we can lawfully enter these homes and shut them down.”

O’Brien says they have to work within the rules of the legal system and it can take time to gather the intelligence and get the proper warrants.

Several high-end stolen vehicles were found at the Cedar home, according to O’Brien. He says there was a multitude of weapons at the Ninth Street home, as well as some pre-cursors to GHB and GHB itself.

Lamontagne will be back in court on Dec. 7.