Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 Source: Guelph Mercury (CN ON) Copyright: 2008 Guelph Mercury Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guelphmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1418 Author: Melinda Dalton Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) DRUGS, GUNS AND MONEY Raids Result In Many Arrests In Toronto, Guelph And Kitchener Dozens of early-morning raids across Ontario yesterday have plugged an extensive pipeline of guns and drugs that flowed directly through Waterloo Region, police said yesterday. At least 27 people were arrested and 30 search warrants executed in the operation, launched two years ago after Waterloo Regional Police got a tip from the U.S. The raids were concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area but extended as far as Timmins, Guelph and Kitchener. Police seized 47 handguns, several vehicles modified to hide guns and drugs as well as large quantities of cocaine, heroine, marijuana and 50,000 counterfeit Viagra pills. "Quite frankly, we are shocked by the extent of the criminal organization we have uncovered in this investigation," Chief Bill Blair of the Toronto Police said in a news conference, flanked by investigators from the OPP and Waterloo Regional Police. "It is most certainly a source of a vast number of the illegal handguns that have made their way onto the streets of Toronto that have caused so much death and destruction and fear in our communities." A search of a Westforest Trail home in west Kitchener yielded four arrests as well as more than 11 kilograms of marijuana, 32 ecstasy tablets and two marijuana plants. A 26-year-old man was taken to Toronto to be charged, and two men and a woman were held in custody in Kitchener. The investigation, dubbed Project Blackhawk, began after U.S. law enforcement officials tipped off Waterloo Regional Police to a cache of 237 handguns that had been smuggled across the border. The guns originated with a retailer in the Chicago area and came into Canada across the Ontario-Michigan boarder illegally, Blair said. Local investigators contacted Toronto Police and the Ontario Provincial Police after it became apparent the gun-smuggling operation extended beyond Waterloo Region. "It was obvious they were not intended just for here, but it's very concerning that they were in our region," said Staff Sergeant Daryl Goetz of the Waterloo Regional Police intelligence branch. At least one gun linked to the original shipment has been used in a local crime, he said. He wouldn't elaborate. Goetz declined to give any further details about the Kitchener arm of the operation, citing the continuing investigation. Of the four people arrested in Kitchener yesterday, only one is connected to the Project Blackhawk investigation, police said. The other three are expected to appear in Kitchener court today. As investigators started burrowing into the operation in 2006, they found the organization was not only running guns, it was also manufacturing huge quantities of drugs. "What this criminal enterprise is doing is producing illegal narcotics -- hydroponic marijuana, methamphetamine, and ecstasy -- shipping it to the United States and returning with illegal quantities of powered cocaine, illegal proceeds of crime cash as well as the firearms," Toronto Staff Inspector Greg Getty said, standing behind 12 of the guns seized during the investigation. What Blair described as a "dynamic and highly successful criminal enterprise" has also been linked to a Mississauga drug lab, where more than $160 million worth of powered and processed methamphetamines and ecstasy were seized April 29. "That lab was the largest manufacturing site of its kind that we have ever seen in this country," Blair said. Police would not speak about the alleged roles of those taken into custody yesterday or provide other details about how the guns and drugs moved throughout the province. They also haven't said how many charged have been laid. Another news conference was scheduled for this morning in Toronto. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom