Suspicious package intercepted in Mississauga leads to arrest on Canada’s East Coast 

Weapon and drug charges laid Wednesday against a Newfoundland man come more than seven months after a police investigation was set in motion by the discovery of a prohibited device at a mail processing facility in Mississauga.

Canada Border Services Agency officers working at the International Mail Processing Centre on Dixie Road, near Toronto Pearson Airport, intercepted a package last Nov. 5 that had arrived in Canada via an international shipper, authorities said.

The parcel, which was destined for an address in St. John’s, Nfld., contained a device prohibited under the Criminal Code of Canada, the CBSA and RCMP said in a news release on Wednesday.

The agency subsequently alerted the RCMP Atlantic Serious and Organized Crime squad to the illegal package and an investigation was launched.

On Nov. 20, 2025, Eastern Region Mounties, with help from CBSA criminal investigations officers, executed a search warrant at a St. John’s home. Officers recovered a number of firearms, prohibited devices, weapons (including edged weapons and brass knuckles) and other property, authorities said.

Lee Ballett, 38, of St. John’s, was charged on Wednesday with:

• Unauthorized importing or exporting.
• Unauthorized possession of a prohibited device — two counts.
• Unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon — five counts.
• Possession of a substance.
• Keeping, acquiring or disposing of goods illegally imported.
• Smuggling into Canada.