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(KIM ANDERSON / iNFOnews.ca)

Kamloops RCMP have arrested two women on drug charges closing part of a two-year investigation.

Jennifer Lindsay Manuel, 38, and Alina May Ortloff, 40, are each facing charges for drug possession for the purpose of trafficking, according to an RCMP media release.

The investigation began in June 2019 when the Targeted Enforcement Unit found links between local drug dealers and the gang Brothers Keepers, which has a presence in the Lower Mainland.

Manuel was already under police investigation at that time for her suspected involvement with a drug trade-related stabbing at the Northbridge Hotel in May 2019.

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Kamloops RCMP collaborated with the provincial Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit to conduct surveillance and use "covert techniques," leading police to investigate other leads in Kamloops and neighbouring communities.

“While (Targeted Enforcement Unit) and (Combined Forces) were conducting their own long-term projects, in doing so, they were also actively disrupting and interfering with relationship building between Kamloops drug traffickers and (Lower Mainland) gangs, and in doing so, our enforcement and disruption have been impactful in enhancing community safety,” Kamloops RCMP Insp. Jeff Pelley said in the release.

More than $100,000, kilograms of drugs, firearms and silencers have been seized while monitoring Manuel's involvement in the local drug trade, according to RCMP.

Manuel was recently sentenced to serve just one day in prison as a result of a silencer found after the Northbridge Hotel stabbing, but police say other investigations are ongoing.

“The Kamloops RCMP detachment, led by the (Targeted Enforcement Unit), will continue to target organized crime in our communities,” Kamloops RCMP Supt. Sydney Lecky said in the release. “This is in alignment with our strategic priorities targeting organized crime, with the goal to suppress the violence it creates and the threat to public safety.”

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The Brothers Keepers gang has been expanding their influence to both the Kamloops area and to Vancouver Island since its first emergence in 2017.

When they came into the B.C. gang landscape, Brothers Keepers were immediately in competition with rival gangs like the Red Scorpions, Wolfpack, Hell's Angels and United Nations.

In July 2020, the Combined Forces unit estimated the gang to have a 194 person membership.

Seven search warrants have been executed across the province through their Bothers Keepers Task Force, according to the combined forces unit.

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Among the drugs, weapons and cash that has been found, police also seized laboratory equipment and precursor chemicals for the production of synthetic drugs.

Six individuals in the Lower Mainland were charged on Nov. 3 for various drug trafficking offences as a result of the ongoing Brothers Keepers Task Force investigations.

Ongoing collaboration with different police detachments and funding from the province has helped the task force to unveil the "anatomy of the Brothers Keepers" and allowed them to disrupt drug trafficking operations strategically, Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit Supt. Duncan Pound said.

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