RCMP seized a large quantity of drugs and a loaded handgun after resorting to spike belts to stop the driver of a car police said hit speeds of up to 180 km/h Thursday evening on Highway 97 south of Quesnel.
RCMP said it began at 5:17 p.m. when an officer spotted a Mercedes near Edwards Road heading north at 145 km/h. It accelerated to 180 km/h in response to hailing from RCMP.
"As the Mercedes entered Quesnel city limits, a second police vehicle attempted to stop the car but it again failed to stop and drove into oncoming lanes in a construction zone on Highway 97," RCMP said. "Witnesses reported the driver continued to drive dangerously down Dragon Lake Hill, swerving in and out of traffic at high rates of speed."
Police laid two spike belts on the north side of the Quesnel River Bridge. But tires flattened, the driver kept going and hit two civilian vehicles, then lodged the car between a dump truck and another truck, then reversed and rammed a police vehicle.
RCMP used a Taser and pepper spray in the course of apprehending the driver and then secured a search warrant for the car after noticing what appeared to be a large quantity of drugs in the vehicle.
RCMP seized 723 grams of fentanyl, 659 grams of methamphetamine, 445 grams of cocaine, as well as a loaded 9 mm handgun with silencer and about $20,000 in cash.
"To put the drug seizure into perspective, cocaine is sold at the street level in half grams (0.5 grams) and meth and fentanyl are sold at the microgram (0.1 gram) amounts. When you do the math, this seizure took a lot of doses of harmful drugs off the streets," Quesnel RCMP Cpl. Matt Isaak said. "The fact that this man had a loaded handgun with a silencer is also disturbing and speaks to the level of violence associated to the drug trade."
RCMP said the spike belts were deployed to prevent the car from making it into the community's downtown at the end of the business day when traffic is at its heaviest.
Cory Todd Siebolts, 33, has been charged with dangerous driving, fleeing police and resisting arrest and was released Friday on $2,000 bail.
A 30-year-old woman was also arrested but later released. Both are from out of town.
Further charges remain pending, RCMP said.
