Despite the involvement of the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime unit, Sooke RMCP say there is no risk to the public in connection with the discovery of a body in Port Renfrew.
Police have not indicated whether the case is being treated as a homicide.
They have also not drawn any official connection between the case and the disappearance of 39-year-old Michael Widner of Sooke.
“As the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit advances these investigations, we wish to assure the public that there has been no threat to public safety identified,” said Sooke RCMP detachment commander Staff Sgt. Jeff McArthur.
Widner’s brother has confirmed that Widner has been found dead and said the family is waiting for the autopsy results.
Rick Ciarniello, a spokesman for the Hells Angels, told the Times Colonist that Widner was a prospect for the Nanaimo chapter of the biker gang.
Widner was the subject of a civil forfeiture case in 2012, a year after his vehicle was stopped by Sooke RCMP and he was found in possession of 25 grams of marijuana, $4,980 cash, a hunting knife and four cellphones.
According to court documents, the suit alleges that “major sources of income for Mr. Widner were obtained from the trafficking of controlled substances.”
Police said on the weekend that Widner’s 2003 black Volkswagen Golf was found abandoned at William Simmons Park near Poirier Lake in Otter Point.
Widner was reported missing on Thursday.
He was last seen Wednesday in Sooke.
