A purported gang member from southern Ontario who was arrested last year in connection with a shooting on Grace Street was busted again this week — on the same street — for a long list of drugs and weapons offences.
Johnathon Greaves, 32, was handcuffed Wednesday morning after Sault Police executed a search warrant at a multi-unit residence in the 0-100 block of Grace Street and seized nearly $44,000 in suspected fentanyl and cocaine.
Police say they also found more than $16,000 in cash, two loaded handguns, three prohibited extended magazines and ammunition.
Greaves is charged with:
• Breach of Firearms Regulation – Store Firearm or Restricted Weapon x2
• Careless Storage of Firearm, Weapon, Prohibited Device, or Ammunition
• Careless Use of Firearm, Weapon, Prohibited Device, or Ammunition x3
• Fail to Comply with Probation Order
• Knowledge of Unauthorized Possession of Firearm x2
• Possession of Schedule I Substance for Purpose of Trafficking x2
• Possession of Firearm or Ammunition Contrary to Prohibition Order x25
• Possession of Prohibited or Restricted Firearm with Ammunition x2
• Possession of Weapon for Dangerous Purpose x2
• Possession of Property Obtained by Crime Over $5,000
• Unauthorized Possession of Firearm x2
Greaves was held in custody pending a bail hearing on Aug. 8. None of the allegations have been tested in court and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
As SooToday reported in 2022, the Ajax, Ont. man was previously identified by police as a member of the “Ugly Crew,” a southern Ontario street gang that was largely dismantled after a high-profile investigation dubbed Project Runway.
He has been arrested multiple times for allegedly trafficking hard drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl, and at the time of the Grace Street shooting in September 2022 he was facing an assault charge in Oshawa.
Greaves was wanted for multiple crimes linked to the Grace Street incident, including aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and six counts of violating a probation order not to possess a firearm. At the time, Sault Police side he "should be considered armed and dangerous."
“If you see them, or know their whereabouts, DO NOT approach, call 911 immediately," police said.
Greaves was eventually arrested in April 2023 but it's not clear what happened with those charges or why he was a free man as of earlier this week.
Greaves is certainly no stranger to police across the province.
In 2012, he was arrested on a Peterborough street carrying crack cocaine and charged with various offences, including possession, resisting arrest and breach of probation.
In 2017, Greaves was among nine people busted during a drug raid at a Peterborough home. He was arrested yet again a year later and charged, along with an associate, with multiple drug-related offences, including possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property over $5,000 obtained by crime.
At the time, Staff Sergeant John Lyons of the Peterborough Police Service described Greaves and his fellow accused as “members of the Ugly Crew gang,” a local group tied to drugs and gun activity in the region.
In 2016, a major investigation dubbed Project Runway targeted the Ugly Crew, which police say sourced their drugs and weapons from GTA street gangs.
Five years later, one of the men arrested as part of Project Runway — Jonathon Morningstar — was apprehended again in Sault Ste. Marie. He had been the subject of a Canada-wide warrant for breach of statutory release and was hiding out in the Sault.
In recent years, Toronto-area street gangs have increasingly expanded their criminal operations into rural and northern Ontario, cashing in on the growing opioid epidemic. The trend was the subject of a recent “Big Read” published by SooToday: How Toronto-based street gangs are terrorizing small-town Ontario.