Aleck Villeneuve
Image Credit: INSTAGRAM/Aleck Villeneuve
October 05, 2021 - 7:00 AM
A Kelowna man is facing charges after he was found on a sailboat off the coast of Nova Scotia with 552 kilograms of suspected cocaine in August.
In the course of an investigation, RCMP officers in collaboration with the Canadian Coast Guard found the sailboat but when police officers approached to intercept, they noticed smoke and fire rapidly spreading throughout the sailboat, Aug. 29, according to the RCMP's press release.
Aleck Villeneuve, 28, from Kelowna was arrested along with 32-year-old Karin Marley Simons, a citizen of Antigua.
In 2018, Villeneuve was injured when the home he was living in exploded in West Kelowna. He and his girlfriend at the time, Chiara Boehlke, were airlifted to hospital in Vancouver with critical injuries. A person also died in the explosion and fire and RCMP said the house was almost certainly being used for the "production of drugs.”
READ MORE: West Kelowna fatal fire likely caused by "production of drugs"
While the men were taken into custody on board a coast guard vessel, the officers assigned to control the fire noticed packages floating in the cabin, with packaging, shape and size similar to cocaine packages seized in the past.
Both men face charges of conspiracy to import narcotics. Villeneuve faces additional charges of importing cocaine and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Simons is wanted by the police as he escaped police custody while receiving care in a hospital.
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