$1.5M in drugs seized after social-media post

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This article was published 15/09/2021 (1515 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A social-media post about a firearm triggered a police probe and a day later the seizure of more than $1.5 million in illicit drugs, numerous guns and $150,000 in cash.

On Aug. 19, Winnipeg police executed three search warrants: one on the first 100 block of Dalhousie Drive, another on the 200 block of Provencher Boulevard, and the third at a hotel on the 1800 block of Pembina Highway. Police have charged two men and two women with more than 100 drug and gun offences in total.

Organized crime unit commander Insp. Elton Hall and guns and gangs Sgt. Mark Vieira showed off the seizure, including nearly 18 kilograms of methamphetamine with a street value of nearly $900,000, to reporters Wednesday. Hall would not elaborate on the content of the social-media post that led to the bust, including how police came across it.

“This is a highly addictive and dangerous drug which has plunged individuals and the health-care system into crisis,” Hall said.

Police also seized 2.7 kg of cocaine worth $214,000; 8 1/2 kg of counterfeit Xanax pills worth $250,000; 500 grams of the opioid fentanyl worth $139,000; and 1.5 kg of psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, worth $15,000.

Officers also seized ammunition, smoke grenades, a money counter and drug-packaging material.

“These drugs are being trafficked,” Hall said. “One of the individuals involved… brought these drugs into the city and is solely responsible for the drugs… and the weapons.”

Hall was asked whether any of the individuals is connected to a gang or organized crime.

“I can tell you that just about everybody in Canada, and everybody in Winnipeg, do not have access to this type of weaponry or the amount of drugs you see on the table today. This is generally reserved for people in a drug trade… gangs or organized crime groups or drug networks,” he said.

Hall noted the firearms analysis unit and the firearms investigation unit will try to determine where the seized weapons, which include pistols, long guns and pellet guns, came from.

“Both units will start looking into the history of the firearms to see where they’re from, if they’ve been trafficked, if they’re stolen, if they’re from the United States,” the inspector said.

As the organized crime division’s new commander, Hall has asked the guns and gangs unit to focus on firearms offences.

“What we’re trying to avoid seeing is what’s going on in Vancouver and Toronto right now — I say that respectfully to the police services — but you’re seeing a lot of daylight shootings, and random shootings in the streets,” he said.

“We don’t want that here, we’re trying to be proactive. I think firearms are probably one of the biggest challenges for urban policing in Canada right now.”

Jonathon Alexander Herntier, 37, faces 46 charges; Joseph Liew, 36, faces 35 charges; Laura Jeanne Powell, 26, faces 16 charges, and Sherry Ann Kelly Lagimodiere, 31, faces 12 drug and firearm-related offences.

The four accused are from Winnipeg; all were detained in custody.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera