‘Largest-ever’ fentanyl bust by Ontario Provincial Police nets 15 arrests

Ontario Provincial Police say they’ve recovered “an alarming quantity of fentanyl” and other drugs in what they describe as the force’s “largest-ever” bust involving the potentially fatal and illegal narcotic.

In total, 38 kilograms of fentanyl (380,000 street-level doses) in addition to other drugs were seized and 15 people arrested after an 11-month investigation into a drug trafficking network based in southwestern Ontario, provincial police said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Methamphetamine (19.5 kg), cocaine (5.5 kg) and smaller amounts of psilocybin and MDMA (ecstasy) were also part of the police drug haul. Total value of seized drugs is $5.4 million, investigators said.

Two handguns, a rifle, a set of brass knuckles, $121,600 in Canadian cash and three vehicles were also seized by police during the course of the investigation, dubbed Project Golden.

The 15 Ontario residents charged range in age from 17 to 55 and include nine people from Hamilton, two from Vaughan and one each from Mississauga, Dundas, Delhi and Courtland. They face a total of 140 charges — 70 of those charges laid against one Hamilton man.

Police said the amount of fentanyl seized was enough for some 380,000 street-level doses, “an amount capable of taking the lives of a moderately sized city.”

They added illicit fentanyl can be imported from other source countries or domestically produced with “precursor chemicals in clandestine laboratories.”

The investigation into the source of the seized fentanyl continues, police said.

“Analysis shows the fentanyl seized through this investigation had been mixed and cut with other substances and was not pure fentanyl, meaning it varied in potency, which has been taken into consideration when estimating street-level doses,” OPP investigators said.

Hamilton Police Supt. Marty Schulenberg said Project Golden took “a significant amount of deadly fentanyl and illegal firearms off Hamilton’s streets — saving lives, protecting families and making our neighbourhoods safer.”

He added the opioid crisis “has devastated our community and while enforcement is not the only answer, it is a vital part of the solution.”

On May 28, police executed search warrants at 16 homes and businesses and eight vehicles in Oxford County, Norfolk County, Hamilton, Mississauga, York Region, Burlington and Toronto.

The RCMP in addition to officers with Hamilton, Peel, Toronto and Halton municipal police forces aided in the lengthy investigation.

(Photos: Ontario Provincial Police)