Guns, drugs, smokes seized during murder arrest
RCMP reports narcotics, firearms and contraband cigarettes discovered at scene of arrest in homicide investigation in Newcastle Creek last week
A cache of contraband cigarettes, guns and drugs were seized at a scene in Newcastle Creek last week, the RCMP reports, coinciding with the arrest of a murder suspect.
The police force issued a news release Monday indicating that members of its provincial crime reduction unit assisted officers with its major crime unit in executing a search warrant at a Wasson Road residence in Newcastle Creek near Minto on June 21.
“During the search, police seized four non-restricted firearms and four prohibited firearms, all of which were unsafely stored,” the release said.
“Police also seized 45,000 contraband cigarettes, as well as quantities of what are believed to be methamphetamine pills, Shady 8 pills (a form of fentanyl), hydromorphone pills, cocaine, crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, unknown pills and drug-trafficking paraphernalia.”
The release noted that a 40-year-old woman and 25-year-old man were arrested at the scene that morning as well.
The time and place of the seizure coincides with the arrest of Erica Blyth, 40, of Wasson Road, who was charged June 22 with first-degree murder in the Jan. 28, 2022, death of Brandon Patrick Donelan.
Donelan, 27, of Minto, was reported as missing to police Jan. 30, 2022, and that report was followed by a major search effort..
His body was found two months later in a wooded area near a snowmobile trail.
Blyth has been remanded on the murder charge and is scheduled to be back in Sept. 6 to schedule a preliminary hearing to determine if there’s sufficient evidence to set the case over for a jury trial in the Court of King’s Bench.
Also arrested at Blyth’s home at the same time last week was Devon Mark Hill Hood, 25, of Veterans Drive in Fredericton.
He’s been detained on an alleged parole violation, and faces unrelated June 15 charges of failing to stop a motor vehicle while being pursued by police and dangerous driving, as well as a June 21 count of being unlawfully at large while subject to a federal prison term.
Hood is due back in court July 10 to answer to those charges.
Monday’s news release about the seizure didn’t name the two people arrested at that time.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Stephane Esculier told the Fredericton Independent on Monday that since charges stemming from the seizure of the cigarettes, guns and drugs have yet to be laid, those suspects can’t be named.
However, the release did reference a homicide arrest, and note the two arrested were held on “unrelated matters.”
Esculier said the investigation into the items found at the Wasson Road residence is ongoing.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Drugs, murder and wratchets go together like peanut butter and jam