THUNDER BAY — The largest drug bust for Thunder Bay Police is now in the books.
After 13 months of investigating and gathering intel through Project Marble, city police executed multiple search warrants at homes across Thunder Bay, Oliver Paipoonge, and in the Toronto area on Feb. 2 and 3.
A total of seven local addresses were targeted by police, including one hotel room. Police arrested nine people, including five men and four women, who were all listed as Thunder Bay residents.
The arrested suspects include:
- Jordan Agostino, 28
- Juan Pulido, 29:
- Brandon Spencer Stevens, 26
- Elizabeth Bennardo, 26
- Phillip Pasciullo, 23
- Lynn Katherine Rolfe, 62
- Nicole Rolfe, 32
- Landon Bennett, 34
- Diana Vecchio, 32:
Through multiple search warrants executed over the two days, police collected a substantial amount of drugs, weapons, cash and other material goods and suspected proceeds of the drug trade.
Locations were targetted by police across the city that include, a residence in the 2300 block of King George’s Park Drive, 100 block of Pine Street, 200 block of Theresa Street, 400 block of Donald Street West, 400 block of Leland Avenue South, 1600 block of Euclid Avenue, in a hotel room in Thunder Bay and at a residence in the Greater Toronto Area.
Thunder Bay Police said approximately 20 kg of cocaine was seized, estimated to have a street value of $2 million. More than $100,000 in Canadian cash was collected, along with a load of jewelry, which included five Rolex watches, vehicles, and other designer clothing and accessories.
Police recovered a total of four handguns - three were located in Toronto and the fourth was in Thunder Bay. One gun was loaded when it was seized by police.
The material items collected have an estimated value of more than a million dollars.
Multiple police agencies assisted in the months-long investigation outside of Thunder Bay Police. With funding from the province's Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario, OPP, Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, Toronto Police Service, Niagara Regional Police Service, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and Calgary Police Service were all involved in the investigation.
FINTRAC, the federal financial intelligence unit and anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing supervisor, also provided assistance to participating agencies.
Acting Inspector Chris Carlucci from TBPS said the seized cocaine will remove a portion of what's available on the streets.
"A seizure of this magnitude will have an immediate dent. However, I don't think we could be naive to think that this will be the end all be all of full seizures and the stoppage of the illicit drug trade."
The most recent large-scale drug bust for city police was Project Waffle, which was announced in Feb. 2022 when TBPS seized 16 kilograms of suspected cocaine that had an estimated street value of $2.3 million dollars at the time of publishing.
