Ontario Provincial Police say that that have “effectively dismantled” a criminal organization that was allegedly trafficking millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine from Mexico, through the United States and into Canada.
Members of the OPP’s Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau began an investigation into the group in December, 2017 after they received information that linked three individuals to the movement of significant amounts of Canadian currency.
As the investigation progressed, police obtained evidence suggesting that the individuals were involved in the trafficking of illicit drugs into central and western Ontario, as well as the Greater Toronto Area.
With assistance from the Canada Border Services Agency, police were able to intercept one of the suspects as he returned to Canada at the Windsor port of entry in February of this year.
Police say that the suspect was driving a large transport truck that had originated in California. They say that the transport truck was outfitted with an “elaborate” hidden compartment behind a speaker, where 55 kilograms of cocaine was located.
Police said that the seized cocaine was 90 to 96 per cent pure and would have had a wholesale value of about $2.5 million or a street value in excess of $5 .5 million.
“The individuals involved in this effort were well organized, were very sophisticated and had devised a distribution network that spanned three countries,” Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum told reporters at a press conference in Barrie on Wednesday morning. “Profits from the illegal distribution and trafficking of drugs were dispersed throughout the difference regions of Ontario and a linkage regarding money flowing to Mexico was discovered so we can surmise that the drugs were originating from and being secured from Mexico.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars seized
Barnum said that the other two suspects facing charges in relation to the investigation were arrested on March 3 after additional search warrants were executed.
He said that a total of $800,000 in Canadian currency has been seized so far, along with one pickup truck, one tractor trailer and two off road vehicles that police allege were the proceeds of crime.
“I think it is important for the criminals out there to understand that if we are not talking about you at this media conference today we will be talking about you at the next one,” Barnum said. “If you are in a business like this, we will meet you and we will find a way to make sure that we will talk about you in one of these media conferences and then you can spend 10, 12 or 15 years in a penitentiary thinking about what you did.”
‘Lavish criminal lifestyles’
Though the investigation into the suspects began in Dec, 2017, Detective Inspector Mark Loader told reporters that it is his belief that the suspects had been involved in the trafficking of drugs for some time prior to that given the “lavish criminal lifestyles that they were leading.”
He said that the investigation into the organization remains ongoing.
“This investigation is ongoing and if further criminal charges are warranted they will be laid,” he said.
As for the source of the drugs, an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told reporters that it remains unclear how they were transported across the Mexico border into California.
The official also did not comment on which Mexican cartel may have been involved in the trafficking of the drugs.
The suspects are facing a combined 50 charges, including importation of a schedule one substance into Canada, trafficking a schedule one substance, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and possession of the proceeds of crime.
