Any crime journalist with half a brain will tell you “guns go up, drugs go down”. I say this in relation between Canada and the United States, Mexico excluded. With Canada’s strict gun laws, it is inevitable that most of these unregistered, illegal firearms come from the United States. On the other hand, with America’s strict drug policies, in a lot of cases, drugs will come from Canada, most notably marijuana. This has also proved to be the case with Xanax, steroids, ecstasy and amphetamine.
This morning (17/07/2024), Peel Regional Police held a press conference for the media and publicly displayed 71 firearms and 7 kilograms of narcotics that had been seized due to efforts of a massive joint task force including several organizations in Canada all the way to the United States. 25,000$ in cash money had also been seized. This operation stemmed from another investigation on a Torontonian street gang that had started in January of 2023. In September of 2023, less than a year ago, Peel Regional Police embarked on a year long investigation dubbed ‘Project Chrome’.
This operation needed many resources and different organizations in order for it to be possible. In other words, it needed a hell of a joint task force consisting of many organizations, both local and across the border. On the Canadian side, the task force consisted of the Ontario Provincial Police, as well as the Toronto Police Service, York Regional Police, Halton Regional Police, Durham Regional Police and the CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency). This culmination of organizations was made possible through the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario or the CISO. This joint task force also had help from the Hamilton Police Service and the London Police Service.
On the Southern side of the border, Canadian authorities had a lot of help from Detroit authorities such as the US Homeland Security Investigations Border Enforcement Task Force of Detroit and the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms) Detroit Field Division. We can concur that most of these firearms were being smuggled through the borders of Detroit and Windsor such as the Ambassador Bridge or the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
The project yielded in 71 firearms being seized, in which 67 of them consisted in handguns and 4 assault rifles. Along with the firearms, only 180 rounds of ammunition had been seized during the project. Multiple extended magazines accompanied the guns and ammunition. Furthermore, 5.5 kilograms of cocaine and 1.5 kilograms of fentanyl, along with an unspecified amount of crack cocaine and Xanax pills were seized.
Authorities believe 69 of those firearms had come from the United States, with the other two firearms being from unspecified countries. Authorities have also stated that the value of the drugs seized would have yielded 1,000,000$ in street value, but this is a far stretch, with a kilo of cocaine being sold for roughly 50,000$ on the street.
Given the massive operation which included many types of authorities from several regions, you would think the roster of criminals implicated in this project would have surpassed a dozen, but only 10 suspects were arrested in the frame of the operation. These 10 suspects amassed a total of 185 charges. Raids had been issued of June 18th of 2024 in Southwestern Ontario and in the state of Detroit throughout 18 search warrants. This is the largest seizure of weapons that the Peel region has ever seen.
The ten suspects arrested are the following…
- Orlando Thomas, a 38-year-old from Brampton.
Arrested on 15 counts of arms trafficking, 38 counts of possession of a firearm without a license, 28 counts of possession of a prohibited device and 9 counts of possession of a loaded prohibited firearm.
- Conrad Mullings, a 53-year-old from Toronto.
Arrested on 11 counts of possession of a firearm without a license, 7 counts of being in possession of a prohibited device, 6 counts in being of possession of a prohibited firearm, 5 counts of firearms trafficking, 1 count of being in property obtained by crime and lastly, trafficking of a controlled substance.
- Hamisi Stanley, a 48-year-old from London, Ontario.
Arrested on 10 counts of being in possession of a firearm without having a license, 6 counts of being in possession of a prohibited device, 3 counts of firearms trafficking and one count of possession with intent to distribute.
- Kevin Dias, a 45-year-old from Hamilton.
Arrested on 6 counts of being in possession of a firearm without having a license, 5 counts of being in possession of a prohibited device, 2 counts of firearms trafficking and 2 counts of possession with intent to distribute.
- Jordan Richards, a 30-year-old from Thornhill.
Arrested on 2 counts of being in possession of a firearm without having a license, 1 count of firearms trafficking and 1 count of of being in possession of a prohibited device.
- Omar Ranger, a 45-year-old from Toronto.
Arrested on 5 counts of being in possession of a firearm without a license, 2 counts of arms trafficking and 2 counts of careless storage of a firearm.
- Shelldon Stewart, a 41-year-old from Leamington.
4 counts of possession with intent to distribute and possession of proceeds from crime.
- Adam Kerr, a 34-year-old from Toronto.
Possession with intent to distribute.
- Garfield Morrison, a 53-year-old from Vaughan.
Conspiracy to traffic dugs.
- Michael Bell, a 59-year-old from Mississauga.
One count of firearms trafficking.
All suspects were released with a promise to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice at a date given to them in the future. Authorities had mentioned in a press conference this morning (17/07/2024) that there had been roughly 200 shooting incidents in the GTA in 2024. They also mention how authorities in the GTA had seized close to 200 firearms this year, making a link on how every firearm seized was a life saved, or at least, unharmed.
