Police are taking to task a crime group accused of producing illegal cannabis edibles packaged like branded candies

Police in Canada said they have arrested six people and busted an organized crime group believed to have manufactured tens of thousands of counterfeit cannabis-infused candy bars and edibles similar to popular branded products.

The raid began earlier this month when federal investigators from the Pacific Region Royal Canadian Mounted Police executed search warrants on October 3 at two pharmacies and five separate residences on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said police on Tuesday.

“These warrants were related to an organized crime group allegedly involved in the production and distribution of illegal drugs and contraband tobacco in Port Alberni and Nanaimo,” authorities said. “The pharmacies in question were Green Coast Dispensary in Port Alberni and Coastal Storm Dispensary in Lantzville.”

Search warrants were also executed at a suspected storage location in Port Alberni and at a storage and manufacturing facility next to the Coastal Storm Dispensary, including two modular trailers where cannabis edibles were manufactured, stored and distributed, authorities said.

The list of seized items includes over 120,000 cannabis edibles with packaging resembling popular name brand candy bars, potato chips, nacho chips, honey and other candies, including over 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of psilocybin mushrooms, 1,740 psilocybin capsules and over 400 psilocybin chocolates, candy and a variety of other psilocybin products, 2.2 pounds of pressed cannabis resin, over 500 pounds of cannabis flowers, over 19 pounds of shrapnel, over 5,000 cannabis vape cartridges, fake cannabis-infused honey, five vehicles , two ATMs According to police, inside were cash, an estimated 164 large boxes of contraband tobacco, equivalent to 82,000 packs of cigarettes, over $400,000 in cash and a shotgun.

“Although the cannabis smuggled chocolate bars and chips resembled professionally manufactured, packaged and quality controlled products, they were determined to have been manufactured in the extremely unsanitary and highly contaminated modular trailers,” RCMP officials said. “A preliminary assessment of the foods also indicates that they were treated with unknown amounts of THC and were likely contaminated with other drugs and substances present in the trailers in which they were manufactured and packaged.”

Equally worrying, police said, was the fact that the fake snacks' packaging claimed they had medicinal properties and dangerously high drug potency levels, with many candy packaging labels claiming they were “100 times more potent than regulated cannabis products.”

“Given the highly contaminated and unsanitary conditions at the illicit drug production facility where these cannabis edibles were produced, it is possible that consumption of these products could result in serious health risks,” RCMP said. “We urge the public to exercise extreme caution if they already own such products or encounter them in the future, especially with Halloween just around the corner.”

The investigation is ongoing and numerous drug charges are being pursued.