RCMP charge 11 people with weapons offences after investigation into northern First Nation violence

RCMP investigators have laid nearly two dozen weapons charges against 11 people in a lengthy probe into a drug and gun trafficking organization tied to repeated acts of violence and arson meant to stoke fear in Bunibonibee Cree Nation.

The new arrests and charges come 10 months after the initial takedown of Project Derry, in which 27 suspects were arrested on drug charges and $1.2 million in illicit substances were seized.

The project dismantled a trafficking network that funnelled drugs, including cocaine, oxycodone, fentanyl and carfentanil, into the remote northern First Nation via Winnipeg and Thompson.

Police say the crime group was behind an escalation in violence, arson and intimidation of community members and band leaders in Bunibonibee (Oxford House), approximately 950 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

“We felt so much pressure to deal with the violence that was in the community — we had to stop it,” said RCMP Sgt. Brock Carson, who was among the investigators on the case.

“There was a shooting, there was an arson almost every single week, so we did everything we could, really, to stop that.”

Mounties announced the results of the initial investigation in December last year.

The RCMP’s Manitoba Integrated Law Enforcement Team, which looks into serious and organized crime, continued investigating shootings and firearms trafficking tied to the crime group after the initial drug arrests, which were meant to disrupt the violence in the community and get suspects off the street.

Most arrested were held without bail and some have already been convicted.

Investigators worked with Mounties from the local detachment and First Nation safety officers to gather and assess further evidence since the initial takedown.

Among those re-arrested recently is the criminal organization’s alleged leader, Luke Grieves, a 34-year-old Thompson man.

With support from the RCMP detachment in Bunibonibee and Manitoba First Nations Police Service officers in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, officers arrested or re-arrested nine people on conspiracy to traffic firearms charges in June.

Carson said one individual who had been arrested in the initial bust went to live in Opaskwayak while on bail.

The June charges are related to 15 firearms that were seized in the investigation, including some with obliterated serial numbers, as well as several shootings.

RCMP say the weapons are a combination of guns stolen in Canada and old firearms already in the community or in other communities repurposed by the criminal organization, while some were likely illegally brought in from the United States.

Police would not divulge details of how they believe the crime group brought guns into Bunibonibee, which is only accessible by plane year-round and ice road for several months in the winter.

On Sept. 15, RCMP investigators charged five people who were already in provincial custody in connection to the initial bust over their alleged role in three brazen shootings in Bunibonibee in June last year.

The first occurred on June 12, 2025, when several people shot repeatedly into a home in the community, striking a 50-year-old woman, who wasn’t seriously hurt, with a shotgun pellet.

The next day, armed individuals showed up outside the same home and again fired off rounds into the house. One of the shooters was injured and taken to Winnipeg for treatment.

Then on June 16, several more people shot up a second house on the First Nation. No one was hurt.

Additional charges have been laid against 11 people, including Grieves, in recent months.

Grieves, Ashley Clipping, 36 from Winnipeg and Trey Stinson, 22 of Bunibonibee, have been charged with conspiracy to traffic firearms, conspiracy to commit reckless discharge of a firearm, reckless discharge of a firearm and discharge a firearm with intent.

Four Bunibonibee residents — Dayton Sinclair, 31, Elton Robinson, 33, Justice Grieves, 31, and a 17-year-old boy — have been charged with conspiracy to traffic firearms, as are Paxton Wood, 27, of God’s Lake Narrows and Tannis Delaronde, 46, of Winnipeg.

Dean Harper and Trenton Stinson, both 20-year-olds from Bunibonibee, are charged with conspiracy to commit reckless discharge of a firearm, reckless discharge of a firearm and discharge a firearm with intent.

A total of 35 people have been charged in connection with the police project.

Carson said about half of the 11 people recently arrested had not been previously charged as part of the investigation.

“(The investigation) means a safer community for our children, our elders, our youth, our women and our young people,” said Bunibonibee Chief Sheila North.

She added that the crime is tied to broader social issues that need to be addressed, including poverty and a lack of health resources.

RCMP Supt. Jeff Asmundson, who commands the team that led the investigation, said there has been a 17 per cent decrease in reported violent crime in Bunibonibee since the initial bust last fall, which includes a 55 per cent drop in serious incidents such as aggravated assault, arson and gun offences.

erik.pindera@winnipegfreepress.com