A total of 50 people have been arrested after police conducted a series of pre-dawn raids targeting two rival street gangs across the Greater Toronto Area Wednesday morning.

The raids were part of Projects RX and Project Battery and were intended to disrupt the activities of both the “Asian Assassins” and the “Sick Thugs” street gangs.

According to Acting Chief Mark Saunders, approximately 10 firearms and a large quantity of Canadian currency, cocaine, heroin and marijuana were seized during the raids, which began at around 5 a.m.

Saunders says a total of 53 raids took place this morning with the “bulk” of them within Toronto’s city limits.

The suspects taken into custody are expected to face criminal organization-related charges along with charges related to firearm, drug, human trafficking and armed robbery.

Saunders also said that he is not ruling out more serious charges being filed, including ones related to unsolved gang-related homicides in the Toronto area.

Police have previously said that the victim in a execution-style shooting outside Yorkdale Shopping Centre last March was a member of the "Asian Assasins" and was likely killed by rivals.

“I certainly would not be surprised if that does happen,” Saunders told reporters when asked about the possibility of homicide charges. “These two rival gangs were incredibly ruthless and their criminal footprint was quite large and extended across the city and even beyond it.”

One of the raids took place at a high-rise building on Western Battery Road in Liberty Village, near King Street West and Strachan Avenue, where at least five people were taken into custody after heavily-armed tactical officers entered the building.

Additional raids occurred in Regent Park and in the area of Dufferin Street and Lawrence Avenue West.

Officers from Peel, York, Durham, Halton, Niagara, Waterloo, Guelph, Windsor, London, Hamilton, Belleville, South Simcoe, Brantford and the RCMP assisted Toronto police with the raids, which were conducted without incident.

“I am very satisfied with the work that the men and women have put forward with this investigation,” Saunders said. “They have put a significant dent in the violence that occurs within this city and I think we will see a decrease (in violent crime) as a result of these arrests.”

Raids the culmination of exhaustive investigations

Both Projects RX and Project Battery began about a year ago as a result of a series of shootings and reported drug distribution believed to be connected to the gangs, Saunders said.

Project RX, which focused on the “Sick Thugs,” was led by the Toronto Police Gun and Gang Task Force while the multi-jurisdictional Asian Organized Crime Task Force led the investigation into the “Asian Thugs,” known as Project Battery.

In the weeks and months leading up to today’s raids, Saunders said about 30 members of the gangs were arrested and an additional 20 firearms were seized.

Most of the arrests leading up to and including today’s raids were concentrated in 14 Division and 51 Division, though Saunders said they weren’t exclusively limited to those areas.

“I can very safely say that this was a much more graduated level of gang subculture activity than we have dealt with in the past and this seems to be a trend that is ongoing right now,” he said. “In the past with the street gangs it was commonly associated with this sort of low level type of organization in structure, where violence was prevalent but nothing else. Now we are seeing that these gangs have a much stronger level of sophistication and organization and that is something to be alarmed with.”

Police are expected to provide more information about the raids, what was seized and what charges will be laid during a news conference tomorrow.

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