'Like an episode of Breaking Bad': Man caught in N.L.'s largest fentanyl bust pleads guilty | CBC News
A snowplow operator came across a grey Honda CRV parked on Ridge Road in St. John's. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel with the engine still running.
By the time police arrived 10 minutes later, Martin Marks was emerging from a zombified state to realize he was in a world of trouble. A urine sample later showed cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, hydromorphone and oxycodone in his system.
A search of his vehicle turned up a BB gun tucked under the driver's seat, along with nearly 100 grams of cocaine, 44 grams of crystal meth, 33 hydromorphone pills and 124 oxycodone pills.
“A mobile pharmacy,” provincial court Judge Paul Noble remarked as he heard the facts read aloud in his courtroom on Thursday.
The traffic stop was just the beginning of a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary operation to surveil Marks and his girlfriend, Emma Murphy, from February to September of 2024.
Police watched the couple on 47 different occasions as they made 84 interactions that were believed to be drug deals. Most instances were quick hand-to-hand transactions, according to an agreed statement of facts read into the record in Marks's case on Thursday.
The officers soon discovered the couple wasn't just using their house in St. John's for their operation, but also a camper in Cochrane Pond — a campground that sits on Crown land about 25 kilometres from the centre of St. John's.
An undercover officer — who goes by the pseudonym UC Vic — made two buys in the summer of 2024. On one occasion, he bought 8.7 grams of cocaine with a purity of 90 per cent. The second time, it was 16 grams of cocaine that tested at 95 per cent pure.
Fentanyl seized in N.L.'s largest-ever bust enough to kill half the province, police say
On Sept. 22, 2024, police believed they had probable grounds to make an arrest. They secured warrants to search the couple's home, as well as the camper at Cochrane Pond.
They found a whopping 521 grams of fentanyl, along with 846 grams of fentanyl mixtures — including carfentanil, acetylfentanyl, methylfentanyl and fluorofentanyl.
"It sounds like an episode of Breaking Bad," Noble said in response to the facts.
Dive deeper
- A snowplow operator came across a grey Honda CRV parked on Ridge Road in St. John's. The driver was slumped over the steering wheel with the engine still running.
- By the time police arrived 10 minutes later, Martin Marks was emerging from a zombified state to realize he was in a world of trouble. A urine sample later showed cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, hydromorphone and oxycodone in his system
- A search of his vehicle turned up a BB gun tucked under the driver's seat, along with nearly 100 grams of cocaine, 44 grams of crystal meth, 33 hydromorphone pills and 124 oxycodone pills.
- “A mobile pharmacy,” provincial court Judge Paul Noble remarked as he heard the facts read aloud in his courtroom on Thursday.
- The traffic stop was just the beginning of a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary operation to surveil Marks and his girlfriend, Emma Murphy, from February to September of 2024.