Poll of the Day > Goddamn, Toronto. $250M worth of cocaine found in cement blocks.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2017/08/28/massive-cocaine-seizure-is-the-largest-in-its-history-opp-say.html\

A tip from a member of the public has triggered the single largest drug seizure in the history of the Ontario Provincial Police.

The force netted 1,062 kg of 97 per cent pure cocaine which had a wholesale value of $60 million and an estimated street value of $250 million, OPP commissioner Vince Hawkes said Monday at a press conference at OPP headquarters in Orillia.

“This is a massive seizure – bigger than I’ve seen in my 33 years of policing,” Hawkes said.

Armed tactical officers stood guard at the press conference near the wall of multi-coloured cocaine bricks on display. There was a further armed guard at the entranceway to the OPP complex.

That cocaine will be destroyed at a secret location, Hawkes said.

“There’s a lot of drugs out there and drugs are killing people,” Hawkes said.

“It’s an amazing size seizure,” OPP deputy commissioner Rick Barnum said, adding the investigation is ongoing.

The OPP declined to elaborate on the tip that started the massive operation.

“Good information was received,” Barnum said.

The initial arrests were made after a traffic stop on Highway 410 in May.

The drug would have been cut down to between 30 and 40 per cent purity before it reached the streets, often with particularly deadly additives liken fentanyl, Barnum said.

“With the amount of pure cocaine seized during Project HOPE, we’ve stopped many criminals from causing more harm to our communities while removing a quarter of a billion dollars from the criminal’s economy,” Hawkes said.

Despite the massive amount of cocaine seized, there hasn’t been a noticeable change in the price of the drugs on the streets, Hawkes said.

Most of the stones containing bricks of cocaine had a kilogram hidden inside. The most found in a single stone was six kilograms, Barnum said.

Some of the stones were seized at a stone supply operation in Stoney Creek.

“Certainly the business was set up to be a front or a cover,” Barnum said, adding it wasn’t known where the cocaine was initially produced.

“There are definitely connections to Mexico and the Mexican cartels,” he said.

The Mexican cartels have members living in the GTA, he said.

The cocaine was smuggled in pallets of building stones.

“Our dogs – CBSA dogs – never detected the cocaine,” Barnum said.

He declined to say who would have distributed the drugs in Canada, except to say they are “extremely high-level organized crime groups.”

The haul was called Project Hope and was in partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency, Peel Regional Police, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

The cocaine was loaded onto ships in Argentina, destined for the Port of Montreal and then the GTA, Niagara Region and other parts of Canada, police said.

Luis Enrique Karim-Altamirano, 52, of Vaughan has a bail hearing on Aug. 30. He is charged with importation of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking and driving while disqualified.

Mauricio Antonio Medina-Gatica, 36, of Brampton, has been freed on bail after being charged May 1 with importation of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking.

Iban Orozco-Lomeli, 45, of Toronto was charged July 10 with importation of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking. He has also been released on bail.

I honestly didn't think it could get this far north so pure.
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*checks Wikipedia*

Yup, Toronto was the city that had Rob Ford as a mayor. Makes sense.

WastelandCowboy posted...

That cocaine will be destroyed at a secret location, Hawkes said.

why at a secret location?
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Is this actually $250m worth or is this like when they bust 10 pounds of weed and call it $2m worth
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SmokeMassTree posted...

Is this actually $250m worth or is this like when they bust 10 pounds of weed and call it $2m worth

WastelandCowboy posted...

The force netted 1,062 kg of 97 per cent pure cocaine

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SmokeMassTree posted...

Is this actually $250m worth or is this like when they bust 10 pounds of weed and call it $2m worth

The article says 1062 kg of 97% pure stuff. That's rather a lot.

Sahuagin posted...

why at a secret location?

Presumably for security's sake. $250 million is an awful lot of money; a whole lot of people would literally kill to intercept that destruction shipment.
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adjl posted...

Presumably for security's sake. $250 million is an awful lot of money; a whole lot of people would literally kill to intercept that destruction shipment.

I guess yeah. it's not like they should say "we will have the $250 million at such and such an address where it will be destroyed", but I would think they'd just omit the location rather than saying "a secret location".
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Sahuagin posted...

WastelandCowboy posted...

That cocaine will be destroyed at a secret location, Hawkes said.

why at a secret location?

So it can actually be resold.
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while it's another s****y drug amoung other s*****y drugs people like to do
i can't help but feel sorry for the people who wanted to get that many people high
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WastelandCowboy posted...

The Mexican cartels have members living in the GTA, he said.

Shit they're in our games now
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I wonder how they "destroy" it.
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