A man stopped for riding a moped without a helmet on Mission, B.C., last week turned out to be carrying a handgun, several types of drugs and hundreds of dollars in cash, according to local Mounties.
The traffic stop happened on 2nd Avenue near Columbia Street on the night of April 9, Mission RCMP said in a news release Tuesday.
An officer pulled the man over after seeing that he was not wearing a helmet.
“The man told the officer he did not have any identification on him, but provided a name and date of birth,” the release reads.
“The officer believed the man was not being truthful and warned him that providing a false name could lead to him being arrested for obstructing a peace officer. The man admitted he had lied, and provided his real name.”
As it turned out, the man was a “repeat offender” who was on probation after previous convictions for carrying a concealed weapon and firearms possession, police said. The man was also subject to conditions of a release order related to drug trafficking charges.
The officer noticed that the man had dropped a package of contraband cigarettes and arrested him under the federal Excise Act.
“Upon being told he was under arrest, the man then admitted that he was in possession of a firearm, which was determined to be a loaded handgun with a silencer tucked into his waistband,” the release reads.
A further search yielded “hundreds of dollars in cash” and “quantities of suspected fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis,” police said.
Online court records indicate the arrested man is John William Charles Chasse, who was born in 1983. He is charged with two counts of breaching a release order and one count each of possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, carrying a concealed weapon, possessing a firearm without a licence or registration and possessing a firearm contrary to a court order.
Chasse remains in custody and is next scheduled to appear in Abbotsford provincial court on April 23.
In their release, Mounties described the traffic stop as “an example of how quickly a minor investigation can turn into something significant.”
“What started out as a proactive traffic stop for a basic infraction under the Motor Vehicle Act quickly led to the seizure of drugs and a loaded handgun," police said.
