Sophisticated Drug Conduit to North Shore Closed
Project Saturate captures weapons and drugs in Sudbury, as gangs target the north
Image courtesy Greater Sudbury Police
Greater Sudbury Police and the Ontario Provincial Police have announced the seizure of dangerously large quantities of street drugs, along with weapons, in a major cooperative operation involving police services across the south and northeast of the province. A total of 197 criminal charges have been brought against 25 individuals.
The June 17th release describes how a special task force, Project Saturate, launched in late 2024 by four policing agencies, focused on an expanding drugs and crime conduit from southern Ontario into Northeastern Ontario, with Sudbury as not just a drugs marketplace itself but seemingly acting as a staging area for expansion of the trade along the north shore of Lake Huron.
Sixteen different police agencies participated in Project Saturate, with search warrants executed in Hamilton, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Toronto, and Sudbury, all directed at what police say are two Greater Toronto Area street gangs intent on trafficking street drugs into the north.
Image courtesy Greater Sudbury Police Service
Shore Report contacted both the Greater Sudbury Police Service (GSPS) and the OPP to talk about drugs on the North Shore. The GSPS pointed particularly to an estimated 73,000 doses of fentanyl, each one potentially lethal, swept up in the operation.
The impact of opioids cannot be overstated. These drugs are claiming lives, destroying families, and stretching our communities’ emergency and health care systems to their limits.
Our first responders are seeing the effects firsthand, often arriving at scenes where individuals are in the throes of overdose, trauma, or crisis. Over the past three years, paramedics have responded to an average of 677 calls for suspected opioid-related incidents each year. The annual emergency department visits in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts for opioid drug poisonings was 198.3 visits per 100,000 population, which is 10% higher than all of Northern Ontario and 83.4% higher than the province of Ontario.
From January to April of this year, 42 lives have been lost to suspected drug poisoning in the Sudbury and Manitoulin Districts. Each of these deaths is a tragic reminder of the devastating impact the drug crisis is having in our communities.
Image courtesy Ontario Provincial Police
Given the relatively small and spread-out population in northeastern Ontario, it may seem counterintuitive that southern gangs see this area as a priority market. The OPP explains that it’s all part of a general expansion in gang crime, and that the north promises higher profits for drug traffickers who can get their product here and distributed relatively cheaply with an established network.
Street gang activity and associated violence has significantly increased over the last five years. While Toronto may be the epicentre, gang issues have migrated to rural, northern and Indigenous communities, and pose a threat across the province. Due to the high cost of drugs in northern communities, southern Ontario gangs continue to expand north for the exponential increase in profit that can be derived.
And while Sudbury was definitely destination number one for the network targeted by Project Saturate, the operation found considerable spread beyond Nickle City.
Based on the evidence gathered throughout Project Saturate, the drug trafficking networks identified did spread beyond Sudbury and into the surrounding communities. This investigation’s drug trafficking networks also expanded into Manitoulin Island and surrounding Indigenous communities. Removing this quantity of drugs and dismantling the drug trafficking networks involved will have great impact on a sizable geographic area surrounding Sudbury.
Just how far did the trade spread? Given that Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma report significant opioid trafficking and related overdoses, has Project Saturate disrupted those markets as well? The picture there is less clear. According to the OPP, no evidence retrieved through Project Saturate indicated spread as far west along the North Shore as, say, Thessalon. This suggests, then, that Sault Ste. Marie’s fentanyl trade is being serviced by criminals other than the gangs disrupted by this recent operation.
Sault Ste. Marie’s International Bridge — site of last year’s somewhat comical GPS-related drug bust. — Image © Shore Report
The seizure of 230 grams of fentanyl during a 2023 traffic stop on Trunk Road in Sault Ste. Marie led to the arrest of two local men. It’s unclear where those drugs were sourced. As well, the unlucky International Bridge driver from last year, Steven Greena, who was found by Canadian border agents to be in possession of suspected fentanyl, appears to have been just passing through the Soo on his way to Saskatchewan when his GPS directed him across the border accidentally.
In total, Project Saturate seized:
Four firearms
12 kg suspected cocaine
7.3 kg suspected fentanyl
164 g suspected methamphetamine
2,448 oxycodone tablets
1,010 suspected methamphetamine tablets
Other prescription medications
8 kg cannabis
Two prohibited devices
$259,000 in Canadian currency
$1,210 in US currency
21 cell phones
Two laptops
Digital scales
One vehicle as offence-related property
One boat as proceeds of crime
The estimated street value of the drugs seized is more than $1.9 million.
All those arrested during the operation were scheduled to make initial court appearances in Sudbury, Toronto, or Brampton earlier this month. Three suspects remain at large with warrants issued for their arrest.
Shore Report is grateful to both the GSPS and OPP for their responsiveness.