Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Chief Hugh Stevenson says the 340 grams of fentanyl seized locally last week as a result of a joint forces operation known as Project Carbon Copy represents “3,400 different potential overdoses in this community.”
The police service worked with Brantford Police Service and the Haldimand Norfolk County detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police over a number of months, resulting in a seizure of fentanyl with an approximate street value of $168,000 and charges laid against seven people. Two of the people facing charges as a result of the joint forces operation reside in Sault Ste. Marie.
“I’m always wanting to let the public understand that 340 grams may not seem significant, but when it comes to fentanyl, that can be 3,400 friends, family, cousins, grand kids and parents that get affected by this poison,” said Stevenson, speaking with SooToday over the phone Wednesday. “It is a significant removal of drugs from our community, and I want to specifically thank Inspector Jody Greco and his team that worked day and night over the last six or seven months to facilitate this takedown.”
Project Carbon Copy, which began in October 2021, was focused on dismantling an organized crime group distributing large quantities of fentanyl from southern Ontario to the north.
Officers with Sault Ste. Marie Police Service initiated a traffic stop on a rental vehicle as it entered the Sault April 14, after members of Brantford Police Service obtained search warrants to search five separate residences and a motor vehicle.
Police arrested the four occupants of the motor vehicle. A subsequent search revealed twelve ounces of suspected fentanyl with a street value of $168,000 concealed within the vehicle.
Search warrants were then executed at three Brantford, Ont. residences and two apartments on Queen Street West in Sault Ste. Marie. Law enforcement officials seized fentanyl and $45,000 in cash concealed in a wall in Brantford, while quantities of suspected cocaine, fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine, crack cocaine and two canisters of oleoresin capsicum (OC spray) were located by officers in Sault Ste. Marie.
Three people — one from Brantford and two from the Sault — were slapped with a number of drugs and weapons charges after the search warrants were executed.
Stevenson says a number of units within his police service, along with civilians, were used over the course of the investigation in Sault Ste. Marie. But the police chief wouldn’t say how much of a role civilians played in the operation.
“I can’t speak specifically to that, but I can tell you that our service has our ears and our eyes open for all information relating to this poison and how it moves around our community,” he said.
Stevenson says the drive for drug dealers to bring fentanyl to northern Ontario from the southern regions of the province is “huge,” considering that quantities of the drug can be sold in the north for four times what it would be sold for in southern Ontario.
“We have a lot of eyes and ears. We will know when you come to this community, and we will put you before the courts and we’ll use judicial processes to seize your product and your vehicles,” said Stevenson. “I like to put that message out so people will realize this is not the community to bring your drugs to.”
Project Carbon Copy was funded by the province through Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario.