A year-long investigation into drug trafficking has resulted in 20 arrests, including four Windsor-Essex residents.
Niagara Regional Police began a probe in the fall of 2021 known as Project Gateway, in cooperation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Peel Regional Police. It was supported financially by the Ontario government's Criminal Intelligence Service.
The ten-month investigation uncovered a variety of criminal operations, including cocaine extraction labs across southwestern Ontario, which transformed cocaine that had been smuggled into a powdered form to re-sell. Other enterprises included smuggling cannabis and tobacco into Canada by transport trucks, conspiring to smuggle cocaine from Mexico and California into Canada via transport truck, as well as by boat across the St. Clair River; smuggling people and drugs across the Niagara River, and other offences.
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Search warrants were executed across Ontario on September 14, with 175 officers from various Ontario police organizations, plus ten Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers.
"The totality of the investigation and the warrants that were executed in Brampton, Milton, Niagara Falls, Thorold, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Woodbridge, Richmond Hill, and Hamilton resulted in numerous charges laid against several individuals, along with the seizure of 3,007.5 pounds of cannabis valued at $3,007,500; 136.3 grams of cocaine valued at $13,630, three handguns, two shotguns, a rifle, 1,650 rounds of ammunition, six stolen vehicles and over $467 000 in currency," read a media release from Niagara Regional Police.
Among those arrested were three Leamington men, aged 45 to 69, who are each charged with possession of cannabis with intent to distribute, knowingly cultivating illicit cannabis from a seed or plant, and cultivating cannabis without authorization while not in a dwelling house.
Also, a 28-year-old Windsor man is charged with possession of cocaine.
The charges have not been proven in court.