South Asian Among Two Arrested In Island Drug Bust

VICTORIA – Criminal charges have nowbeen laid against two alleged high-levelVancouver Island drug traffickers followingtheir arrest last June in an investigationled by the Vancouver Island team ofthe Combined Forces SpecialEnforcement Unit of British Columbia.Ali Arash Ziaee, a 26-year-old Saanichman, has been charged with one count ofpossession of a controlled substance andfour counts of possession of a controlledsubstance for the purpose of trafficking.The pair were originally arrested followinga search at an apartment in the 2700-block of Peatt Road, Langford on June 6,2013. Two more search warrants wereexecuted on the same day in the 500-block of Heatherdale Road, Saanich andin the 2700-block of Claude Road,Langford on Vancouver Island.Significant quantities of various drugswere seized during the searches alongwith other items.Ziaee’s partner-in-crime Zachary ScottMatheson, a 36-year-old Langford man,is charged with four counts of possessionof a controlled substance for thepurpose of trafficking.Matheson has a lengthy criminal recordfor property, drug, and violence-relatedoffences and is well-known to police forhis criminal associations on VancouverIsland.The first court appearance for both menis scheduled for 9 a.m. on March 13th,2014 at the Western CommunitiesProvincial Court.