$50M worth of cocaine seized, nine arrested in largest combined drug seizure in Peel police history: ‘A seismic blow to organized crime'

Hamilton Spectator

a day ago

A routine inspection took an unexpected turn at the Ambassador Bridge crossing in Windsor in February.
Investigators say Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers had flagged a transport truck for secondary screening, pulled it aside and opened the trailer. Inside, they say they found 110 bricks of cocaine, 127 kilograms in total, with a street value of $12.7 million. Officers arrested the driver.
That seizure was just part of what Peel police are calling the largest drug bust in the service's history. Nearly 500 kilograms of cocaine have been seized. Nine men have been arrested. And a year-long investigation — known as
Project Pelican
— has dismantled what police describe as a transnational organized crime network trafficking illegal drugs into the GTA.
Police in the Greater Toronto Area say they have seized 479 kilograms of cocaine and arrested nine people in a transnational drug bust. Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah says it marks the largest drug bust in the service's history. He says the investigation started in June 2024 when investigators uncovered a criminal network using commercial trucks to smuggle drugs across the U.S. border into Canada. (June 10, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
'This is a seismic blow to organized crime,' Peel police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said Tuesday at a press conference flanked by senior officers and government officials. Behind him sat portions of the seized 479 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $47.9 million.
Peel police said Project Pelican was the largest single drug seizure in the force's history.
The year-long operation began after police began investigating a cocaine smuggling operation using U.S.-Canada commercial trucking routes.
'In Peel, we have the largest logistics hub outside of Los Angeles,' Duraiappah said. 'What that means is vulnerabilities in logistics systems can be exploited by criminal networks to their advantage.'
For Project Pelican, Peel police enlisted help from covert officers working closely with the CBSA, the RCMP, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other partners.
Investigators tracked trucking companies, identified drivers and mapped the network's storage facilities, said Det. Sgt. Earl Scott, Project Pelican's case manager. Multiple individuals, trucking companies and storage sites were identified by November, police say.
After the 127 kilograms of cocaine were seized in Windsor, another truck was pulled aside at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia last month. Hidden within the trailer, investigators say they found 50 more kilograms of cocaine. The driver was arrested.
Throughout the investigation, additional seizures were also made across the GTA in connection with commercial trucking by Peel police. Investigators say they executed a series of co-ordinated search warrants involving 60 officers in Peel region and Toronto, resulting in arrests. When some of those individuals were arrested, police said they had loaded firearms.
'This is a significant quantity of drugs that will never make it into our communities,' said Abeid Morgan, the director of intelligence and enforcement for the Canada Border Services Agency's southern Ontario region.
The nine men arrested, ranging in age from 27 to 44, are now facing 35 combined charges related to drugs and firearms. All are residents of southern Ontario. Of the nine men, three are awaiting bail hearings at the Ontario Court of Justice in Brampton. The other six have been released with conditions.
Project Pelican is still ongoing, and it's part of a broader trend of illegal drugs entering Canada from Mexico through the U.S. using logistics companies, said Peel police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich. While the source of the seized cocaine is still under investigation, Scott said many cross-border trafficking cases he's worked on have originated in Mexico.
Also on Tuesday, the Ontario Provincial Police announced
a 'historic seizure' of 43.5 kilograms of fentanyl.
Officers seized the bulk of it — roughly 38 kilograms, the OPP's largest fentanyl seizure — during Project Golden, an 11-month investigation that looked into a multi-jurisdictional drug trafficking network that spanned several communities in southwestern Ontario.
A second investigation from the OPP, Project Bionic, led to the seizure of over 27 kilograms and 64,000 tablets of 37 different illegal and prescription drugs. The total seized amount from both investigations would be enough for about 435,000 potentially lethal street-level doses, OPP said.
'We're aware of the trends. We're seeing more illegal drugs than we have before,' Milinovich said. 'As long as the trend continues, you can expect to see more arrests.'
Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner acknowledged the scale of the effort. The province had invested $150,000 directly into Project Pelican.
'Seizures like this make a huge difference in the well-being of our Ontario communities,' Kerzner said. 'Whenever we get illicit substances off our streets, we are quite literally saving lives.'
Speaking at Tuesday's news conference, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown thanked officers for their efforts in the investigation.
'The city, the region, the country is safer because of their work,' he said. 'I'm sure there could be movies done on some of these Peel police investigations.'
On Tuesday, June 10, Peel Regional Police will announce results of Project Pelican. A transnational drug smuggling investigation.
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