U.S. Militia Suspected in Seizure of Arsenal in British Columbia

In the first evidence that American right-wing militia groups are operating in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Friday that it had seized a cache of weapons, ammunition and sophisticated survival gear from a militia hide-out in a remote region of British Columbia.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Peter Montague said in a telephone interview that 15 guns, including a .50-caliber semiautomatic assault rifle, were recovered in a raid on the camp in July and that news of the seizure was delayed while the investigation continued.

No arrests have been made, but RCMP Constable Len Meilleur, one of the investigators, said a small number of suspects have been identified and are believed to be in the United States.

The Mounties are working on the investigation with the FBI and the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he added.

Most of the material was seized from a public storage locker, but some guns were recovered from a trailer located on a one-acre lot near Smithers, a logging and ranching community of about 5,000 residents 450 miles north of Vancouver.

Meilleur said the windows of the trailer had been boarded up, then painted to look like curtains. He described the site as “well secured,” leading officers to suspect it was intended as a hide-out or retreat.

Police began investigating earlier this year after residents of the area complained of suspicious activity.

Besides guns and more than 50 rounds of ammunition, investigators also recovered chemical suits, tear-gas masks, detonation cables, first-aid equipment, dried food, sleeping bags and seeds for a vegetable garden.

Although several militia groups operate in the American Northwest, in close proximity to the Canadian border, Montague said this was the first indication that they have been active in this country.