Elevate your local knowledge

Select Region

Selecting your primary region ensures you get the stories that matter to you first.

LANGLEY, B.C. – Rare criminal organization charges have been laid against four people identified by RCMP as managers or bosses of a dial-a-dope scheme in Metro Vancouver.

Langley RCMP say the complex investigation began in 2012 and ended with the arrests on June 25 of 30-year-old Mikhail Marinov, 38-year-old Ruslan Makhmudov, 39-year-old Tyson Tull and 20-year-old Ashley Smits.

Marinov and Makhmudov face three counts, including instructing an offence of trafficking in cocaine and heroin for the benefit of a criminal organization.

Tull and Smits are accused of various possession and trafficking offences, as well as committing an offence of trafficking in cocaine and heroin for the benefit of a criminal organization.

A Langley RCMP release says Marinov and Makhmudov are to appear for a bail hearing next Thursday while Tull and Smits have been released on bail and must return to court later this month.

Cash and drugs valued by investigators at more than $140,000 were seized along with four vehicles from five so-called stash houses linked to the Langley-based dial-a-dope operation that police say was so busy it needed two phone lines to cope with demand.

News from © The Canadian Press, . All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.