Drug-related charges have been laid against two men who were arrested Jan. 31 by investigators from Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit BC’s Vancouver Island office with the assistance of the Victoria Police Department and West Shore RCMP.
Charged with one count each of possession for the purpose of trafficking in a controlled substance are Gregory Matthew Allen, a 36-year-old Victoria resident, and Timothy Anthony Taylor, a 30-year-old Comox resident.
The pair is alleged to be involved in distributing cocaine as part of a cocaine trafficking network operating on Vancouver Island and supplying the Comox Valley.
The investigation, dubbed E-Percept, began in late 2012 by CFSEU-BC’s Vancouver Island office and identified two men, both well-known to police, as a running a cocaine distribution network from southern Vancouver Island up to the Comox Valley.
The pair was initially arrested on Jan. 31 with one being arrested in Parksville and the other in Langford. Two search warrants were executed, one in Langford and one in Victoria. Over 20 ounces of cocaine and drug manufacturing and packaging equipment were seized.
Taylor was released from custody in January pending charge approval by Crown counsel but Allen, a United Nations gang associate, was held in custody in relation to the breaching of charges related to a CFSEU-BC’s 2011 investigation in which Allen was charged with multiple drug-, violence-, and firearm-related offences related to incidents in the Comox Valley.
“CFSEU-BC is committed to reducing threats to public safety. These arrests and seizures demonstrate to the citizens in communities across B.C. that CFSEU-BC makes it a priority to eliminate the distribution of drugs from the streets so as to ensure that they will not be used in future crimes and result in violence,” says Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, spokesperson for CFSEU-BC.
“The successful charges in this case serve to highlight a partnership between CFSEU-BC and police agencies like the West Shore and Comox Valley RCMP and the Victoria PD against threats of violence posed by organized crime groups and their associates.”
The investigation continued after the initial arrests in January and charges were laid last week by Crown Counsel. Allen turned himself in at the West Shore provincial courthouse last Wednesday and Timothy Taylor was arrested Nov. 28 by the Comox Valley RCMP.
— Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit BC