$5.4M street value: OPP reveal record fentanyl seizure

An 11-month investigation into a drug trafficking network based in southwestern Ontario has resulted in the seizure of an “alarming quantity” of illicit street drugs, including the OPP’s largest seizure of fentanyl to date.

Fifteen individuals are now facing 140 charges under the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in relation to the investigation called Project Golden.

Launched in July of last year, the project was a London OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau (OCEB) intelligence-led initiative, with collaboration from the Norfolk County OPP Community Street Crime Unit.

Police say that due to the “multi-jurisdictional scope of the drug network and the large volumes of drugs involved”, Project Golden was taken over in November by the OPP OCEB, the OPP-led Provincial Guns and Gangs Enforcement Team, the Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Hamilton Police Service, with support from the RCMP.

On May 28 search warrants were executed on 16 residences and businesses and eight vehicles in Oxford County, Norfolk County, Hamilton, Mississauga, York Region, Burlington and Toronto by multiple OPP teams and regional police units and task forces.

As a result of the searches and investigations, an estimated $5.4 million in drugs were seized, including:

• 38 kg of suspected fentanyl
• 19.5 kg of suspected methamphetamine
• 5.5 kg of suspected cocaine
• 34 g of psilocybin, and
• 14 g of suspected MDMA.

Three firearms, three vehicles as “offence-related property” and $121,600 in Canadian currency were also confiscated.

“Illicit drugs continue to pose public safety risks, and the impacts are devastating to the people and communities of Ontario,” the Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau said in a statement.

OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, a representative from the RCMP and Hamilton police superintendent Marty Schulenberg spoke at this morning’s media announcement in Orillia, Ont.

“Project Golden has taken a significant amount of deadly fentanyl and illegal firearms off Hamilton’s streets-saving lives, protecting families, and making our neighbourhoods safer. The opioid crisis has devastated our community, and while enforcement is not the only answer, it is a vital part of the solution. Every gram seized and every gun removed is a step toward a safer Hamilton,” said Schulenberg.

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