TORONTO: Thirteen people are facing 48 charges in an investigation into an international drug- and weapon-smuggling operation.
Ontario Provincial Police say illegal drugs — mostly cocaine — were being brought into Canada from Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Guyana, then distributed through the Toronto area and in Newfoundland and Labrador.
OPP say prohibited guns were also being brought in from Florida.
They say officers seized 123 kilograms of cocaine, 22 firearms, $146,000 in Canadian currency and four vehicles over the course of the investigation, dubbed Project Monto.
OPP Chief Superintendent Rick Barnum says the people charged are those who orchestrated, rather than carried out, the smuggling.
Twelve of those charged — all from the Toronto area — have been arrested.
They are David Blevins, 36, of Oakville; Jermaine Wilson, 38, of Mississauga; Sandra Lewis, 48, of Milton; Dainnia Cameron, 40, of Milton; Kenton Lnafhorne, 42, of Vaughan; Rionne Martelly, 38, of Milton; Donovan Brown, 44, of Oakville; Dexter Griffith, 43, of Toronto; Natasha Ruddock, 24, of Toronto; Rocco Petrucci, 49, of Toronto; Michael Robinson, 44, of Toronto; Fitz Prince, 63, of Toronto.
All face drug trafficking charges. Blevins and Brown are also charged with weapons trafficking offences.
Dwidth Ferguson, 32, of Guyana, is wanted on drug trafficking charges.
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