THUNDER BAY - Local and regional police services have taken a significant step in combating the growing epidemic of drugs, gangs, and guns in northern communities by taking millions of dollars in cash and drugs and more than a dozen firearms off the street.
“I think the best way to look at this is we are trying to dismantle and disrupt an organized crime group that are trying to establish themselves in a new market,” said Ontario Provincial Police Superintendent, Brian MacKillop, director of the Crime Enforcement Bureau.
Project Disruption, a multi-jurisdictional effort by the Thunder Bay Police Service, the OPP, Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service, and Anishinabek Police Service, seized $1.5 million in drugs, $755,000 in cash, 13 firearms, and laid 431 charges in six months.
All the drugs, money and guns seized were part of warrants executed in the city of Thunder Bay and included but not limited to 2.8 kilograms of cocaine, 927.58 grams of crack cocaine, 1.06 kilograms of fentanyl, 82 hydromorphone pills, 50.48 grams of methamphetamine, and 2,728 Oxycodone pills. Of those charged include 80 confirmed or suspected gang members.
“The number that really hits home is the amount of fentanyl that was seized during the six months and the impact that has,” said Thunder Bay Police Service chief, Sylvie Hauth. “When you seize a kilogram and it has the impact of saving potentially 500,000 people from having an overdose, I think it speaks volumes to the impact this has had.”
The biggest seizures in the last six months included a warrant executed on Jan. 29 that uncovered $135,807 in cash and a warrant executed on March 20 that seized 320 grams of fentanyl with a street value of $163,950.
“Anytime you take guns out of their hands, anytime you take the proceeds out of their hands, the product out of their hands, it’s one less opportunity to victimize, one less opportunity to establish a customer or a victim in the community, and one less hurdle for them to overcome to grab that foothold to establish themselves in the community,” MacKillop added.
The Joint Task Force between the four police services was established as a response to increasing gang activity in Northern Ontario communities.
MacKillop said joining forces with local and regional partners is the key to success when it comes to trying to stop the growing number of gang members attempting to establish and grow a market for illicit drugs in the north.
“We know this is getting nothing but worse,” he said. “We are seeing significant gang violence and gang shooting in our urban centres. Our goal is to disrupt that and stop that from moving into our communities.”
There are numerous gangs from Southern Ontario operating in the north, with the Galloway Boys, the Ardwick Bloods, and the Thorncliffe Park Kings being the three most prominent.
Southern Ontario gangs, which MacKillop described as organized crime organizations and not simple street gangs, see Thunder Bay as a lucrative market for drugs as well as a hub for transporting drugs to other remote northern communities.
“They are no different from an outlaw motorcycle gang that establishes chapters and expands and evolves and takes advantage of supply and demand like any other business,” he said. “They are here, they are established, and they are setting up a network and taking advantage of people.”
All the guns seized have been traced to the United States. Drugs and guns are smuggled into the region through a variety of methods including cars, planes, courier, and mail.
Hauth said it is difficult to say for every gun seized from the street how many more remain out there.
“Access to illegal guns is fairly easy in terms of acquiring them,” she said. “For us here in Thunder Bay, what we’ve noticed is there are more guns prevalent in our city and most of the warrants that are conducted have some type of weapon or firearm involved.”
Ongoing effort
All police services involved say the substantial seizure in just six months would not have been possible without a multi-jurisdictional effort.
Hauth said resources are limited and in order to be proactive and address an issue that has been growing for the past year and a half, police services need to combine resources.
For members of NAPS and APS, the growing opioid crisis is devastating to the communities they serve.
“The money that is used for drug use impacts families more than it would in other communities,” said Darryl Snider, NAPS acting deputy chief. “Also the price of the illegal drugs is much higher. When we do have someone who is addicted, it takes a lot of money to fund that addiction.”
A single pill can sell for between $100 and $500 in some communities, according to Snider, and Snider said people living in remote communities that are government funded do not have that kind of money. Snider added they only have two officers dedicated to drug enforcement.
“Our communities are very vulnerable,” he said. “That is probably the most important part for us having the help from Thunder Bay, OPP, and APS, hopefully, we can even bring more people into this. We just don’t have the resources to fight this on our own. These kinds of projects and cooperations with other police services is vital to us to make a dent in this epidemic.”
This is only the beginning for Project Disruption, Hauth said, and she is hopeful that the provincial government, which recently announced nearly $4 million through the Community Safety and Policing Grant earmarked for police services to tackle guns and gangs, will see the proactive steps being taken in the north to try to stem this growing epidemic.
“In order to sustain it we need to access the money that has been earmarked,” Hauth said. “Hopefully we will be successful. It is a competitive process, meaning that all services in the province will be applying for the $3.9 million from the province that has been announced.”
