A nearly ten-month investigation by multiple Ontario police agencies has resulted in more than 400 charges being laid against a group of 22 people accused of smuggling weapons and drugs across the Canada-US border.
York Regional Police Inspector Ahmad Salhia said the effort began with a person under investigation for drug trafficking in London, Ont. in October 2021
According to police, it then expanded to include allegations of a gun smuggling ring where firearms were being transported across the Canada-US border through First Nation land on Walpole Island, west of Wallaceburg, Ontario.
Salhia said at its narrowest point, the St. Clair River, which separates the Walpole Island First Nation from Port Huron, Michigan, is less than a kilometer wide.
He did not say what method was used to transfer the weapons across the river, but added that an incident involving weapons attached to a drone found in nearby Lambton County in late April was unrelated to this investigation.
Officers from the Ontario Provincial Police, London Police, York Police and Peel Police said they built their case and then raided 22 homes and two businesses on July 28.
27 handguns believed to be from the US and a quantity of drugs, including nine kilograms of cocaine, 1.9 kilograms of fentanyl and 20,000 Xanax pills, were allegedly recovered and 22 people were taken into custody.
Salhia said some of the fentanyl was pressed “to look like a candy — a car like a butterfly or a number of other things.”
Fentanyl made to look like candy is shown in an image of a YRP handout.
If someone were to consume such a product, “the outcome would certainly be fatal,” he said.
Officers also confiscated 17 over-capacity magazines for the pistols and 300 rounds of ammunition.
The accused parties range in age from 20 to 67, police said. In total, they face more than 400 criminal code offences.
An analysis found that 20 of the guns seized were from the US, including places like Florida, Ohio and Michigan.
A variety of handguns and magazines are seen in a handout image from YRP.
“We believe the balance of those firearms, the remaining seven, will also be traced to the US,” Salhiya said.
Police praised the work of Walpole Island First Nation, both its band council and police service, in helping them apprehend and track down the suspects.
Walpole Island First Nation Chief Charles Sampson said his community could be of even greater help in stopping the cross-border arms trade if enough resources were put in place.
“Our police service is woefully underfunded – we only have nine to eleven officers on the ground and we have to protect an international border between Canada and the United States,” he said. “We have one boat, but we need a whole marine division to do our job effectively.”
He called on the provincial and federal governments to give his community more money to strengthen its law enforcement capacity.
“We desperately need adequate funding to do this work.”
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