City police bust massive coke-trafficking ring

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This article was published 24/02/2021 (1916 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police made the largest seizure in the force’s history — more than $11.5 million in illicit drugs, cash, properties, vehicles and guns — as they shut down a highly organized, cocaine-trafficking cell.

The investigation, dubbed Project Gold Dust, began last May.

Numerous city police units got involved, and then the probe became a joint investigation with the federal RCMP’s organized crime unit. The Vancouver Police Department was also called in. After 10 months of sleuthing, police officers struck.

On Feb. 10, 144 police officers executed 26 search warrants on residential and commercial properties as well as vehicles, 22 of which were in Winnipeg, two in Vancouver and two in Surrey, B.C.

Police arrested nine people in Winnipeg, one in Vancouver and an 11th suspect in Surrey. All of the accused face a raft of charges, including drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy and possessing the proceeds of crime.

Police allege the network referred to itself as “The Company” when conspiring to transport mass quantities of cocaine and other drugs into Winnipeg from British Columbia.

“An operation as sophisticated as this has found ways to evade and elude police detection. We know there’s many modes of transportation, whether it be air, whether it be train, whether it be vehicle, through the mail system,” Winnipeg Police Service Insp. Max Waddell said.

The gang would distribute the cocaine through a sophisticated network of high- and mid-level operators to low-level local couriers, collect large sums of cash and return it to the British Columbia arm of the network, police allege.

“Clearly, (it was) a consortium of individuals that not only conspired but quite simply were successful for a long time at moving significant amounts of cocaine from British Columbia into Winnipeg, reaping the profits, sending it back to British Columbia, and that was really the circuit of their business,” Waddell said.

Winnipeg’s organized crime unit learned about the criminal cell through intelligence sources, Waddell said.

Although police made numerous arrests involving the upper echelon of the organized crime group, they’re still investigating the organization’s tentacles.

“It takes a large group of individuals to distribute this amount of cocaine throughout the city so there are various levels that are involved,” Waddell said.

Police seized numerous properties and vehicles, some of which were used to store and sell cocaine, said Waddell, the guns and gangs unit commander.

He pointed to bricks of cocaine, bales of cannabis, guns and drug packaging equipment that once belonged to “The Company” but has become evidence for a future trial.

Stacks of $20 bills and large bags stuffed to the brim with cash were prominently displayed on the table in front of him.

Police also seized $107,000 in Bitcoin, which Waddell said was the first time city cops have seized the cryptocurrency during an active investigation.

The use of cryptocurrency is a concern for police, Waddell said.

“This is the evolution of organized crime,” he said of Bitcoin.

“It’s just opening up a whole other world for these individuals to move value that’s outside of the banks.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera