A 10-month offensive against southern Ontario’s illegal drug trade culminated in a series of raids earlier this week, Toronto police announced on Wednesday.
Staff Insp. Randy Franks said illegal drugs worth more than $2.2 million and a large quantity of cash were seized in 29 search warrants executed on Tuesday as part of Project Domo.
Toronto’s Organized Crime Enforcement Drug Squad Major Project Section launched Project Domo in September 2011, aimed at dismantling cocaine distribution networks across the Greater Toronto Area.
A total of 45 homes were searched and 38 people were arrested over the course of the investigation, including a massive bust on a biker gang headquarters last month.
Franks said 22 people arrested in Tuesday’s raids and will be charged with running drug operations out of homes across the Toronto area.
Homes in Toronto, Richmond Hill, Oshawa and Kitchener were searched in the raids and, in all but one instance, occupants were taken into custody.
Police said on Wednesday that one suspect remains outstanding.
Four firearms were seized in the Tuesday raids, including a machine pistol, a 9mm handgun, a sawed-off shotgun and a .22 calibre rifle.
Seven vehicles and more than $236,000 in various currencies were seized as proceeds of crime.
Police said just under $2.5 million worth of controlled substances was seized as part of Project Domo, including quantities of cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy.
York police find ‘sea of green’
Tuesday’s raids came on the same day as officers in York region made a giant drug bust of their own, when an investigation led them to an industrial marijuana grow-operation in Scarborough that contained an estimated $20 million worth of plants.
The warehouse in Scarborough contained between 8,000 and 10,000 marijuana plants in various stages of growth, in what police Det. Const. Barry Smith described as “a sea of green.”
The bust in Scarborough was one of five search warrants, in Brantford, Toronto, Markham and Mississauga, that York Regional Police executed in relation to the investigation.
Eight men are facing charges in connection to the marijuana grow-operations.
With files from CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry