A criminal network that stretched from Winnipeg to Vancouver was dismantled by the Winnipeg Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) during a long-term investigation launched early in 2018.
Ten suspects were incarcerated after 10 months of investigation under a Riverbank project.
Investigative work began in Winnipeg and resulted in 16 search warrants being issued across the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Eight of these warrants were for houses in Winnipeg.
The searches resulted in the seizure of various drugs, firearms, vehicles and cash for a total of $ 2.7 million.
This operation involved the work of 300 police officers, more than half of whom came from the Winnipeg Police Service.
“Coordination and cooperation across jurisdictions is absolutely necessary to pull us out of the methamphetamine and other drug crisis we are in today,” said Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman.
A logic that Cliff Cullen, Manitoba’s Minister of Justice, approves. “We hope for more such operations to end organized crime,” he says.
According to Scott Kolody, Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP, the fight against organized crime is the priority of the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP.
“These drugs are coming to our big cities, but they are rapidly infiltrating our province from rural to remote northern communities. There is no place safe from these organized crime networks, “he says.
Brian Bowman wants to continue this momentum. “It’s important to continue to support the anti-drug strategies put in place by the police,” he says.
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