Nanaimo Mounties nabbed a member of the Dahk gang along with two other suspects on the weekend.
The arrests happened after members stopped a grey 2008 Acura, southbound on the Island Highway near Victoria Road at about 12:30 p.m.
Officers got to the car and noticed "an overwhelming odour of marijuana" wafting from the car, so they arrested all three occupants, said Const. Gary O'Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman.
Police towed the car to the Nanaimo RCMP detachment to do a thorough search of the vehicle, which turned up 27.5 grams of crack cocaine, 7.5 grams of marijuana, 108 pills suspected of being ecstasy, a radio jamming device, scales and $1,700 in Canadian cash.
Jujhar Khun-Khun, 24, Irran Khan, 20, and Anees Mohammed, 19, all from the Lower Mainland, were held in custody and appeared in before a Nanaimo provincial court judge on the weekend when they were charged with trafficking.
All three men were also charged with breaching the conditions of their release from previous trafficking charges. They appeared in Nanaimo provincial court Monday morning to determine if they were to be released or held in custody.
O'Brien said Khun-Khun is a known member of the Dhak gang based in the Lower Mainland, which was involved with a number of gang-related shootings. Vancouver gangster Gurmit Singh Dahk was shot to death in an execution style shooting in October.
Police do not know specifically why the three men were in Nanaimo.
"The big thing is, this is a presence we haven't seen before," O'Brien said. "Hopefully people are getting the picture here. We've had Redd Alert, we've had United Nations members, we've had Independent Soldiers, the Devil's Army from Campbell River. It's just not a community issue. It's not a Lower Mainland issue. It a provincial issue that affects many different communities at any given time because these people bring a culture of violence, intimidation and threats. If they're here and all of a sudden someone wants to come over from Vancouver and wants to shoot them, that affects our community."
O'Brien said gangs are highly mobile, looking to expand the drug trade anywhere they can and there is little to stop them from infiltrating the Island.
"If you're a business person, you're going to expand your trade and if you see an opening you'll take it," O'Brien said.