A series-of early morning raids across the GTA has “dealt a significant blow” to the operations of the Five Point Generalz street gang, Chief Mark Saunders says.

More than 50 search warrants were executed at addresses in Toronto and York, Durham and Peel regions, beginning at 5 a.m. as part of a nine-month long investigation known as “Project Patton.”

Police say that 70 people have been arrested so far and that additional suspects could be apprehended in the days and weeks to come.

“Our investigators are confident that Project Patton has effectively disrupted and dealt a significant blow to the hierarchy and operations of the Five Point Generalz,” Saunders said during a hastily-called news conference at police headquarters on College Street on Thursday morning. “This gang had a definite and significant impact on violent crimes occurring across the city but specifically in the west end of the city.”

Saunders said that search warrants executed on Thursday morning resulted in the seizure of a “significant number of firearms and large quantities of narcotics,” some of which will be on display at a news conference scheduled for Friday morning.

Though police have not released any information about the charges that those in custody will be facing, Saunders said that they will reflect a number of incidents of violent crime, as well as drug trafficking and other offences.

“We are talking about a street gang that utilize firearms for business processes and have no hesitation in using firearms,” he said.

Gang has ties to Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue area

Saunders said that the Five Point Generalz are a “highly coordinated criminal organization” that is based in the Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue area but is connected to criminal activity across the city, the country and in parts of the Caribbean.

He said that the gang is “active in the sale and distribution of illegal narcotics” and has been connected to a “multitude of shootings” in Toronto in the past.

One of the more notorious incidents believed to be connected to the group was the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Ephraim Brown at his birthday party 11 years ago. Brown had been given permission from his parents to stay up past his bedtime to celebrate with more than 70 people in the backyard of a townhouse near Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue on July 22, 2007. At some point during that party, gunfire erupted and Brown was fatally struck.

“I won’t get into their deep roots of the Five Point Generalz because I don’t want to give them credibility. If I start bigging them up in the terminology than I am doing them a favour. I am not going to do that,” Saunders said on Thursday.“These are thugs that collectively use firearms to shoot other people and it is a concern because it has lasted for a period of time.”

More than 800 officers from the Toronto Police Service and police services elsewhere in the GTA were involved in Thursday morning’s raids.

Saunders said that the investigation was “strategic” and “surgical” and ultimately led to the arrests of numerous people who are alleged to be high up in the hierarchy of the Five Point Generalz.

“This wasn’t about random arrests,” Saunders said. “This was very focal.”

The arrest of dozens of alleged members of the Five Point Generalz comes one week after a shooting at a Scarborough playground that sent two young sisters to hospital.

Saunders said that there is no connection between that shooting and today’s arrest. Nonetheless, Mayor John Tory did tell reporters on Thursday afternoon that he is pleased to see police are taking “aggressive action” to round up people who are alleged to be involved in gun crime.

“As I indicated last week I certainly wanted to see aggressive action taken by police to get these thugs off the street so this is a step forward,” he said. “I am sure the work is not complete but I think it is good work on the part of our police depart to conduct this investigation and make these arrests. I suspect that there are more to come because unfortunately there is a relatively small group but more than a handful of people who are causing havoc in our city. We have to get those people off the streets.

Investigators are expected to provide further details at a news conference planned for 10:30 a.m. on Friday.