Tracking devices on barrels of fentanyl ingredient from China lead to guilty plea for possession

Tracking devices on barrels of a fentanyl precursor imported from China led police to arrest an Edmonton-area man on drug-related charges, court heard Monday.

Dean Clayton Abbott, 43, pleaded guilty in Court of Queen’s Bench to one count of possession of trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine — known as TFMPP, which can be combined with another drug to create a substance similar to ecstasy — as well as one count related to the Firearms Act and another for possession of several vehicles acquired in “whole or part with the profits of drug trafficking.”

But it was four barrels containing 100 kg of N-phenethypiperdinone — a fentanyl precursor known as NPP that were shipped to Edmonton from China — that led police to arrest Abbott in 2015, according to an agreed statement of facts entered in court by federal prosecutor Dennis Hrabcak on Monday.

At customs, the barrels were declared as iron oxide-yellow that was to be used in bubble bath production. The shipment was flagged by the Canada Border Services Agency, and the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) began an investigation by installing tracking devices on the barrels, which were taken first to a warehouse in Red Deer, and later moved between different locations in Edmonton, including Abbott’s home.

On Dec. 9, 2015, police executed a warrant at Abbott’s residence, as well as at an acreage near Beaumont where some of his family lived. In addition to seizing the TFMPP, police recovered Canadian and American currency, various ammunition and magazines, two guns, more than a dozen cellphones, and a signal jammer located in a kitchen cupboard.

A woman, Shavon Wenger, also faces charges in the case.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Mary Moreau is expected to sentence Abbott on Oct. 1.