Carjackings, opioid crisis linked to staggering surge in pharmacy robberies

Pharmacy robberies have more than quintupled in some parts of Ontario as armed gangs rush in to fill unmet demand for opioids, terrifying healthcare professionals virtually every day in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), according to a CTV News investigation.

Police across the region say they are striving to keep up with the volume of attacks that has gone from a handful a few years ago to hundreds connected to various other crimes, including carjacking.

“Right now the challenge is the frequency of them. There are so many of them happening, all around the GTA,” Det. Ryan Boulet of the York Regional Police (YRP) said in an interview.

Boulet shared five surveillance videos of the attacks in his region over the past few months where the crimes have yet to be solved.

In one, four men in black hoodies burst into a Vaughan pharmacy and soon confront shocked staff, yelling, “On the floor! On the floor!”

One yells, “Where’s the safe?” A woman responds, “I’ll show you.”

But some kind of altercation starts and she begins to scream while one of the robbers says, “Make sure she doesn’t move!”

In the back, one man can be seen pushing pills into a bag from the safe. The video is under two minutes long, and has much in common with other attacks, including speed, disguises, and a focus on the pills rather than cash.

Surveillance footage of a robbery taking place inside of a pharmacy in the GTA. (Supplied)

Stats show "rapid" rise

Statistics compiled by CTV News Investigates show a rapid rise in these robberies, from just three in York Region in 2019 to 56 so far this year. The rise has been fast: in Peel Region, there were only 6 cases in 2020, and now officers have recorded 104 so far this year.

Compared to last year, in Durham Region, the attacks are up 75 per cent to 7. In Toronto, they’re up 106 per cent to 101. In York Region, they’re up 230 per cent to 56. And in Peel, they’re up 511 per cent to 104. In Halton, police could not separate pharmacy-related robberies specifically.

The increase is region-wide because the crime sprees cross boundaries, requiring multiple police forces to work together, Boulet said. In York Region, Boulet said the robbers usually use stolen cars; in nine per cent of the attacks so far, the cars were connected to cars stolen through carjackings.

“One of our best ways to combat this is working with our partner agencies,” Boulet said. “If York Region gets hit, the likelihood of the same suspects committing another robbery in Toronto or Peel or Durham is very high.”

"It’s not just one robbery in York Region. It’s happening in York, Peel, Toronto, it’s Waterloo, it’s Halton. We allege the same suspects are responsible for a number of these robberies in all these communities,” he said.

Police in various regions have arrested people in relation to a third of the cases. In Peel, there have been 209 charges laid against 32 people so far, related to 37 attacks.

But at least 268 attacks in the first nine months of the year means, on average, a pharmacy is likely to be hit every day.

Robberies appear to follow drug demand

Driving this trend is likely a demand for narcotics specifically, said Det. Const. Chris Auger of the Ontario Provincial Police, who studies the diversion of prescription drugs. Thieves act like a business, chasing demand that is, in some cases, on the rise, which pushes prices higher, he said.

“Hydrocodone has become very popular on the streets,” he said. “We’ve seen prices increase. Availability is always an issue.”

In one court case reviewed by CTV News Investigates, the convicted robber texted friends in 2018 offering to sell the Percocet pills he had stolen from a string of pharmacy robberies for $4 each.

But some sources, including streetrx.com, indicate the price per Percocet pill is much higher today, at about $10 per pill in the GTA.

Depending on the distribution of the pill the prices can go higher, Auger said.

“When it comes to different areas, or different locations across Ontario, prices go up,” Auger said. “As you go north it tends to be more pricey.”

Pharmacists call for tougher penalties, time-delayed safes

Some pharmacists are calling for tougher penalties to deter attacks on pharmacies, arguing there should be a greater price paid for an attack on an aspect of Canadian’s health care. All authorities urged that anyone in a robbery should not fight back and wait for law enforcement.

The Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA) says Ontario should follow in the footsteps of B.C. pharmacists and put in time-delay safes.

“These robberies are really fast. Under two minutes. Some as fast as 30 seconds. They are looking to get in and out as quick as they can. The time delays increase their chances of getting caught,” Angeline Ng of the OPA said.

In B.C., one study showed that time-delay safes reduced thefts by 94 per cent. Alberta is already following suit and regulators in Ontario plan to consult pharmacists about requiring them.

Some pharmacists told CTV News Investigates they worried the idea of telling an armed robber to wait while a safe opens could put them or their staff in jeopardy.

Ng said the B.C. studies didn’t show any trends like that, and a pharmacist association in B.C. contacted by CTV News Investigates didn’t stress that as a concern.

Implementing a time delay in a robbery could increase the likelihood a robber would be caught, and wouldn’t be able to make money off the robbery. But that wouldn’t do much about the demand, said Doug Shipley, a Conservative MP.

“I like to look at root causes,” Shipley said in an interview. “You look at the root cause here and it’s the addiction. If there was no demand for it, they wouldn’t steal it.”

Connections to deadly overdose crisis

The demand has become much more widespread thanks, in part, to over-prescribing opioids for decades without accounting for how addictive they would become, said Dr. Dan Werb, an epidemiologist with the University of Toronto.

He said that without a regulated drug supply, people who are addicted will turn to underground sources, which can be highly toxic, and are behind the thousands of deaths recorded each year.

A rise in demand for pharmaceutical products could be part of an attempt by some users to get around deadly pills, which can be cut with benzodiazepines, fentanyl, or even worse, he said.

“They’re serving a market of people who are desperate for safe, standard pharmaceutical opioids. Why leave it up to these drug trafficking organizations to provide for the needs of people who are highly dependent on opioids? That should be the purview of the government,” he said.

NDP MP Alistair MacGregor said he supports decriminalization of small amounts of substances and making a safe supply of substances available to those who need them — a proposal he said was blocked by Liberals and Conservatives.

“By tackling the circumstances which are creating the illicit substances black market, health care professionals will face less threats of violence,” he said. “Increased penalties and mandatory minimums have never worked. They are not effective at deterring people from doing the crime and only make the toxic drug crisis more deadly.”

In B.C., the provincial government is pursuing a class action lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, demanding they pay for the consequences of what is alleged to be overprescribing and deceptive marketing. The government amended a law last week to make it easier for others to join the class.

It is not clear whether pharmacists hit by repeated robberies would have a cause of action as well.

In the meantime, the search is on for the suspects, and whoever they are working for. Most of the people arrested so far are young — four teenagers were arrested last week for three carjackings and nine pharmacy robberies.

Toronto's Insp. Rich Harris told CTV News Investigates he believes there is much more to this than the young people arrested so far.

"There’s some level of sophistication that suggests to me that there are older people behind the wrongdoings of this misguided youth,” he said.

When asked if he’s looking for a kingpin, YRP's Det. Boulet said, “Absolutely.”

"There’s so many of them I can’t say for certain there’s one kingpin or two or ten. There are so many there’s clearly a significant gain for them when they obtain these narcotics,” he said.