From posing to possession: Former Abbotsford body builder & fitness consultant one of two men charged in large fentanyl drug lab bust

Justin Fauth, 35, owned Edge Nutrition in Abbotsford, used to consult with Lower Mainland sports teams & is now charged with illegal drug production

The vast majority of people doing time in federal institutions have unenviable life stories that even the most unsympathetic observer has to admit makes it understandable where life took them.

Many were abandoned as a child or abused by caregivers. Many grew up without fathers or mothers who were addicted or vice versa. Some had little chance in life. Often when this is pointed out about an offender in reporting on a court case, someone will chime in to say something like, “I had a dysfunctional childhood and I turned out OK.”

That's valid. There is, however, a difference between an excuse and a reason.

What the public often finds interesting because it is somewhat perplexing is the criminal offender who did not grow up with abuse and/or poverty and/or tragedy.  We all know a person who was born on third base and lives their life like they hit a triple, but what the hell happened to the kid born on third base who punched the umpire, stole a bat, and went running into the stands?

High-profile examples of this include Luigi Mangione, the affluent Ivy League graduate who will allegedly murdered a health-care corporation’s CEO. Or Tyler Robinson, the middle-class Mormon kid who allegedly killed neoconservative firebrand Charlie Kirk.

There are lots of reasons why someone who does not fit a stereotype of a career criminal might commit a serious crime: mental health collapse, a major negative life change, financial ruin. Some combination?

The answer might be unknowable. Popular science author and neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky points out in his book Behave that if a scientist stimulates neurons in a certain region of the hypothalamus in a subject, the animal will act with aggression. Lots can happen in the complicated CPU that is the human brain.

It’s not terribly hard to understand a person who just snaps, a la the Michael Douglas character in the movie Falling Down. What’s harder to figure out is when someone who is otherwise “normal,” engages in a protracted conspiracy or a major criminal plot. Think here of someone such as Jason Lee, the suburban, mild-mannered correctional officer who engaged in a conspiracy with gangsters to smuggle drugs, phones, and weapons into Kent Institution and was sentenced to five years for it earlier this year. Why on Earth take that chance? Greed alone?

Which brings us to Justin Fauth, one of two men arrested leaving a rural property on South Sumas Road on Oct. 2, 2025, the site of which was a functioning fentanyl/MDMA operation where millions of dollars of pills were seized from the clandestine lab as well as two other residences, and two storage lockers.

The 35-year-old Fauth was arrested with 37-year-old Carlos Martinez, both charged with production of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking. 

So far there are few details about the operation outside of the RCMP’s news release issued on Oct. 6. A spokesperson said more information would be released when all the searches are complete. More than a month later no follow-up has been released, but the large quantity of material has to be lab-tested to ensure it is what they think it is. And with a case this large, police have to be careful what they release to the public before it comes out in court.

So who is Carlos Balbino Martinez? Who is Justin Tyler Fauth? 

To start with, the name Carlos Martinez is a little like a Spanish John Smith so there’s not much easily searchable online about him. He also has no other criminal charges in B.C., according to court services online. That’s also not because he’s brand new to the area. He did get a ticket for using a cellphone while driving in Abbotsford in 2016. 

As for Fauth, this is where it gets interesting as someone who appears to be in that “normal” category based on his public-facing profile from social media and other online sources. To start with, Fauth also has no other criminal charges in B.C., but he did get a speeding ticket in Abbotsford in 2020 and violated the restrition on his driver’s licence as a 19-year-old in 2009. Maybe had an “N” and too many passengers?

From posing to possessing

Fauth is handsome and muscular and heavily tattooed. He owned a supplement shop in Abbotsford called Edge Nutrition that permanently closed  in 2022. 

His Facebook profile pic posted on July 6, 2021 is a photo of him with another man who is smiling. Fauth is putting up a peace sign in front of his face. 

He used to be a bodybuilder, posting in 2013 that he won first place in the heavyweight class at an unnamed show that year. 

That’s around when he started working at Edge Nutrition, apparently later becoming the owner. From 2015 to 2018, he posted several short videos promoting his store and his related business as a fitness trainer and diet consultant. 

He has a clip speaking to a boardroom of Telus employees about nutrition. In 2016, he posted a video with him talking to baseball players at the Abbotsford Cardinals training facility. That same year he has a photo posing in the locker room with the Chilliwack Chiefs. A year after that, an image of him speaking to a group of cyclists at UBC.

When the pandemic hit, there was a period of time when gyms were closed and several gym owners and users were quite angry. For many people who work out with weights, it’s a form of mental health as well as physical health so when that was taken from them, it wasn’t good. 

On Dec. 23, 2021, Fauth posted a link to a Change.org petition that got more than 51,000 signatures entitled “Show us the data on COVID transmission on [sic] gyms.” 

There’s no clear sign that the pandemic is what forced his business to close, but his last post on his personal page was on March 15, 2022. The last post on the Edge Nutrition Abbotsford page was a month after that. 

In his videos he presented an image of joy and confidence, offering practical tips about specific health topics such as cholesterol and vitamin D as well as broad inspirational business-speak. 

What he did after 2022 isn't clear from simple online searches, but whatever it was, it led him to handcuffs at a drug lab on a farm in Chilliwack last month. Martinez and Fauth are the only two charged since the raid on the property, which is owned by Ravinder Robbie Singh Ghag, according to a title search. Many rural property owners rent out barns to people for storage or small-scale trade work or even dog training, so it’s unclear if Ghag would have known anything about the alleged drug lab.

Now Fauth is in custody, presumably at the Surrey Pretrial Centre. He is due in provincial court in Chilliwack on Monday (Nov. 10) scheduled for a bail hearing. Martinez is due in Abbotsford court on Nov. 13, an appearance scheduled for a technical suitability report, which is used when the court is considering a release on bail with electronic monitoring.

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Paul J. Henderson
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