Halifax Regional Police have charged 13 people, including three who work at downtown establishments, with drug-related offences following an undercover investigation into trafficking.

Twelve men and one woman, ranging in age from 19 to 32, face a total of 30 charges. They include trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of illicit substances.

One of the accused is from New Glasgow; the others live in Halifax or Dartmouth.

Staff Sgt. Darrell Gaudet, who heads the Halifax Regional Police drug unit, said police believe three of the accused were dealing drugs from the places they worked.

"There were bar employees involved," he said.

Police launched their investigation earlier this year following reports of people suffering adverse reactions to MDMA, a drug commonly referred to as Molly.

Gaudet said officers saw several cases of people hallucinating or "acting very bizarre" in the downtown area.

Police figured out they'd taken Molly and over the course of five months, undercover officers went to several bars and tried to buy drugs.

'Bad batch' of Molly

Gaudet said because the street drug can be cut with different toxic ingredients, people can react differently to the pills.

"This maybe was a very bad batch," he said. "It's made by organized crime and they're not caring about your health."

Halifax police worked with RCMP on the investigation.

​Police say they searched three residences in Halifax and Dartmouth and seized cocaine, MDMA, marijuana, magic mushrooms, cash and drug paraphernalia.

They say they haven't put a dollar figure on the drugs seized and called it a "small dent" in the drug trade.

"We're not naive to believe we stopped any type of illegal drugs in the Halifax area," Gaudet said.

"But we moved heavily on that just because of the reaction to the drug and the fear that it was a dangerous drug, Molly."