RCMP in Kamloops have executed search warrants at at least three locations relating to unlicensed cannabis stores operating on Tk’emlúps land, previously known as the Kamloops Indian Band.

On Tuesday, May 13, around 9am, Kamloops RCMP, in partnership with other agencies, executed search warrants at three locations. One was at a home at 635 Shuswap Rd. and two others at cannabis businesses—Boomers Buds on Chief Louis Way and Five Star Smoke Shop on Ricardo Road. All are located within or near Kamloops Indian Reserve 1.

The two businesses are listed as part of a chain of three stores operated by Five Star. The third is located in Cache Creek and does not appear to be part of the recent enforcement action. Calls to all three locations on May 14 were unanswered.

A media spokesperson for Kamloops RCMP told StratCann they will release more information on these enforcement actions in the coming days.

May 15: Additional information provided by Kamloops RCMP says the investigation was initiated by members of the Tk’emlúps and Kamloops RCMP city detachments and carried out with the support of RCMP’s Targeted Enforcement Unit “due to the potential ties contraband tobacco can often have to organized crime.”

h/t to Castanet.

While the BC government has maintained that only cannabis stores it has licensed are allowed to sell cannabis in the province, enforcement against unlicensed stores operating on First Nations reserve lands tends not to be a priority. 

There have been occasional enforcement actions, often at the request of local First Nations leadership, like a round of raids that took place in October 2024 in Vernon against a handful of cannabis stores operating on Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) land. 

Those raids were led by the BC Community Safety Unit, which, under the Policing and Security Branch of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, is responsible for compliance and enforcement under the provincial Cannabis Control and Licensing Act (CCLA), focusing on the illegal sale of cannabis. 

CSU investigators can carry out compliance and enforcement activities against unlicensed cannabis retailers and other illegal sellers across the province.

These enforcement actions are not always led by the CSU, though. 

On the same day as the CSU raids in Vernon, the federal RCMP announced a series of raids on Vancouver Island that took place in early October, resulting in six arrests and the seizure of more than 120,000 cannabis edibles from two unlicensed cannabis stores. Specifically, police listed Green Coast Dispensary in Port Alberni, Coastal Storm Dispensary in Lantzville, and five residences on Vancouver Island. 

Several unlicensed cannabis stores in Comox, BC, faced two rounds of enforcement actions by members of the CSU in 2024, as well, operating in and around the K’ómoks First Nation.

In 2023, BC Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said that the CSU has also conducted nine enforcement actions on First Nations reserves in the province, seizing about $12 million worth of products.  

As of January 2025, the CSU has conducted 368 educational visits, and as a result, 238 unlicensed stores have closed. CSU has investigated 1,657 websites involved in the illegal sale of cannabis and has disrupted 1,054 of those websites. It has seized a total of $39.24 million worth of cannabis, the bulk of which was from 2019-2022.

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