OTTAWA: Regional police services working with provincial, national and international partners have seized 123,000 grams of cocaine, worth an estimated $12.2 million slated for distribution across Canada.
“That’s a huge impact when an average drug user would maybe use a gram a day and we’ve seized 123,000 grams of that,” said Chf. Supt. Rick Barnum, OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau.
The law enforcement partners also seized 22 firearms, more than $100,000 in cash, money-counting machines and four vehicles.
Thirteen people have been charged, most of them in the Toronto area.
Members of the Ontario Provincial Police worked with a number of GTA police forces, the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency officers, and U.S. Homeland Security and called the project Operation MONTO.
Barnum said, “When you look at our communities that are represented here today that we’re responsible to provide policing for we’re proud of the fact that we’ve taken that amount of drugs and the individuals that bring that amount of drugs into our province and into our country off their game and out of the system.”
At a news conference held in Downsview Thursday morning, police said the illegal drugs were coming into Canada from Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Guyana. The illegal weapons were coming from Florida, police said. Then the group would allegedly distribute the contraband, including the drugs, for cash in the Greater Toronto Area and in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The investigation has been ongoing for 18 months.
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