Peel Regional Police have won a major battle against gun trafficking.
According to law enforcement, 97% of the illegal firearms seized during the operation known as Project Chrome were smuggled from the United States.
The police force announced on Wednesday that the project, which began in Sept. 2023, had wrapped up successfully.
Ten individuals were arrested and charged with 185 criminal offences, with some already released on bail.
Of the 71 firearms that were seized, firearm tracing confirmed that 69 of them were smuggled into Canada from the United States.
“We believe the firearms seized in this investigation would have ultimately wound up in the hands of offenders to be used in shootings, carjacking, home invasions, and other acts of violence,” said Detective Sergeant Earl Scott.
Scott presented the findings at a Wednesday press conference alongside other officers.
Nishan Duraiappah, the chief of police for the Peel Regional Police, said that officers have seized nearly 200 firearms so far this year, almost one per day. So far in 2024, the region of Peel has seen as many shootings as it did in all of 2023.
Toronto saw a similar climb, with shootings up nearly 70% and deaths more than double.
Police also seized 180 rounds of ammunition, prohibited magazines, 5.5kg of cocaine, 1.5kg of fentanyl, crack cocaine, Xanax pills, and $25,000 in Canadian and U.S. currency. The total value of the drugs seized is estimated to exceed $1 million.
Graham McGregor, MPP for Brampton North and parliamentary assistant for Ontario’s solicitor general, said that it only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to kill someone, meaning this quantity of fentanyl could, in theory, have killed 750,000 people.
The Liberals’ strategy to combat gun violence involving illegal foreign firearms has focused on targeting law-abiding Canadian gun owners.
True North previously reported that legal firearm owners are seldom involved in gun homicides.
Pierre Poilievre pledged to stop attacking legal gun owners if he’s elected.
“Nearly 100% of our carjackings and home invasions, where firearms are used, represent illegal firearms that have been imported into our country,” said Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich.
The Ontario government and the Ministry of the Solicitor General funded Project Chrome. The project was a partnership between the Peel Regional Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, five municipal police forces, and the Canada Border Services Agency. Investigators also worked with the United States Homeland Security border task force.
“Seven of these individuals were held for bail hearings. Two are still waiting for their bail hearing date, so they’re in custody. Two have been denied bail, and the others have been granted bail,” said Duraiappah.
Peel Police Service Board Chair Nando Iannicca said it’s challenging for law enforcement to apprehend criminals, only for them to be released on bail the next day.
He thanked the mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, for telling Ottawa that “something had to be done with this revolving door justice.”
“It sounds like a joke… We’ve talked about the problem with car thefts, but (this) actually happened here in our GTA jurisdiction. Some guy’s up before a judge for having a stolen car, gets let off (on bail), and went into the parking lot courthouse and stole another car. You can’t make this stuff up,” said Iannicca. “But can you imagine what it does to our enforcement people that say, here we are doing what it takes: the countless hours, efforts, energy, risk, and then we find out it’s a bit of a catch and release system.”
Iannicca said everyone from the federal government and below needs to seriously re-evaluate the catch-and-release system.
“When we allow people who are the perpetrators of crime to freely go out, and the record shows, commit more crime while they’re waiting for a hearing date, something’s got to give. My heart goes out to the victims and to the people in uniform that say, they must just want to beat their heads against the wall when they get home some nights and say, what is the point of this if I know these people are back out on the street?”
Iannicca concluded that they need stronger results on the catch-and-release file from the federal government.