Two brothers sought on Canada-wide arrest warrants and considered armed and dangerous were apprehended Sunday morning near the U.S. border south of Creston, B.C., RCMP said.
Ian Michael Butz, 28, and Jason Avery Butz, 26, were arrested after an off-duty Canada Border Services Agency officer spotted the pair near Creston, a town about 10 kilometres north of the U.S. border, RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said.
The brothers are suspects in two armed robberies that took place at gas stations in the Peace River region of Alberta last week.
Police, who believed the Butz brothers were wearing camouflage clothing and were attempting to flee into the United States on foot, had been expecting the pair to be armed with a sawed-off shotgun, but no weapon was recovered during the arrest on Sunday.
On Wednesday, two men wearing sunglasses and armed with a shotgun robbed K.A.N's General Store in Donnelly, Alta., at around 5:30 p.m. MT. The men left the store with cash and cigarettes and fled north on an ATV.
Later that same night, at around 11:30 p.m. MT, two men robbed the Fas Gas in Nampa. They had a shotgun, and fled on a red ATV. The suspects in that robbery were described at 5'8", wearing blue jeans, dark shoes and brown and camo hoodies.
An ATV fitting within the description and timeline of the robberies was reported stolen, police said.
Creston RCMP were alerted to the Butz brothers being in the area two days ago after a Canada-U.S. border incident involving two sisters.
At about 8 p.m. PT on Friday night, RCMP picked up two women who were refused entry into the U.S. at the Porthill-Rykerts border crossing. The women were driving a vehicle Alberta RCMP had flagged as potentially associated with the two armed robberies in Alberta.
Moskaluk said that police brought out a dog team and initiated an extensive search of the border area that lasted until dawn Saturday. Police also made an appeal to residents in and around the Creston and Kootenay areas to keep their eyes open for the men.
Moskaluk said the women, sisters aged 22 and 26, from Lethbridge are also in custody. They could face charges related to the armed robberies.
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