MPI drug testing, decontaminating stolen vehicles before returning them to owners

Manitoba Public Insurance is systematically testing stolen vehicles recovered by police for traces of illicit drugs — including fentanyl — as part of a pilot project to ensure vehicles owners aren’t put at risk.

The project, which has already been running for several weeks, aims to test a sample of 100 recovered vehicles for drugs, and where necessary decontaminate them before returning them to their rightful owners, MPI spokesperson Brian Smiley told CBC News.

“We’ve had processes in place in the past, but what’s new right now is the pilot project involving the scanner and the out-of-province service providers with the cleaning of fentanyl and carfentanyl,” he said.

Spokesperson for Manitoba Public Insurance, Brian Smiley, says about 20 percent of stolen vehicles tested as part of a pilot project has been positive for traces of illicit drugs, including fentanyl. (CBC News)

MPI has purchased a device that analyzes swabs taken from within a vehicle for dangerous substances. The device, which costs about $40,000, is similar to those air passengers would encounter in most airport security zones.

With the project nearly complete, Smiley says, about 20 per cent of tested vehicles came back positive for some sort of illicit drug, including cocaine, methamphetamine, cannabis, heroin and fentanyl. MPI could not provide the exact number of fentanyl cases.

Last year, about 3,200 vehicle were reported stolen in Manitoba, with about two thirds (2,3270) of thefts occurring in Winnipeg, according to MPI and Winnipeg Police Service statistics.

More than 3,200 vehicles were reported stolen in Manitoba last year. MPI says in nearly 75 per cent of cases, the thieves used keys that were left in the vehicle. (CBC News)Smiley says in the past, vehicles would be visually inspected by police.

“We had a policy in place — the vehicles would be inspected visually — with the assistance of police in some situations where they would literally tell us that they believed that this particular vehicle had been involved in some drug activity,” he said.

Once the pilot project is complete, MPI says, the results will help inform the Crown corporation on the development of its policies on recovered stolen vehicles.

Out-of-province cleaning experts

Since no Manitoba company is certified to decontaminate and remediate vehicles with traces of fentanyl, MPI has had to look to out-of-province service providers to assist with the project.

Trauma Scene Bio Services, an Alberta-based company that specializes in cleaning trauma, crime and bio hazardous scenes, is among those that have been contracted by MPI to assist for the duration of the project.

Brent Olynyk, president and owner of Trauma Scene Bio Services, a hazardous material and trauma incident cleanup company based in Alberta. says testing vehicles for traces of drugs are becoming a big part of his business. (CBC News)

Brent Olynyk, the president and owner of the company, says over the past year vehicle decontamination has increasingly become a larger part of his business.

“The ones we’ve been testing lately [in Alberta], we haven’t had one that’s passed testing for quite some time,” he said, noting he only gets called in when there is suspicion of drug traces based on police reports.

Olynyk says different chemicals are needed to neutralize the fentanyl analogues when cleaning vehicles, which is done wearing respirators and full hazmat suits.

He says in some cases the contamination runs so deep into the guts of the vehicle, including the ventilation system, that the insurance company has to decide whether the remediation costs are worth it. 

“We’ve done a couple where every swab that we took came out with a positive hit for carfentanyl and at that point … do we really want to take the chance to remediate this vehicle or just crush it?,” he said.

The average cost to test and decontaminate a vehicle runs about $2,000 to $2,500, according to Trauma Scene Bio Services. Olynyk says at this point he’s trying to evaluate whether he should expand his services in Manitoba given the growing demand.