 Yesterday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Greater Toronto Area Drug Section arrested nine Ontario residents on drug-related charges as a result of a twenty-four month investigation spearheaded by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with assistance from the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency. Provisional arrest warrants are also being sought for four additional Canadian suspects.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Sweet Tooth by the DEA, focused on an alleged Ecstasy and marihuana trafficking and money laundering network operating between the United States, Canada and Vietnam. Operation Sweet Tooth resulted in the dismantling of two major drug transportation rings with international ties and 61 U.S. distribution groups.
A total of 300 individuals were arrested and 58 search warrants were executed both in the United States and Canada. Approximately 906,000 Ecstasy (MDMA) tablets, 607 kilograms of marihuana, and $4.8 million in U.S. assets were seized.
"Co-operative efforts between law enforcement agencies are our best tools in the fight against illegal drugs and the harmful effects they have on our communities on both sides of our shared border," said Superintendent Ron Allen, Officer in Charge of the Greater Toronto Area Drug Section. "In Canada, we are seeing an increasing trend in the use of clandestine produced chemical drugs. Ecstasy has become a drug of choice at work, schools, nightclubs and house parties," added Superintendent Allen.
Authorities are particularly concerned that what is being sold as 'Ecstasy' is really a potentially lethal cocktail containing highly addictive and dangerous methamphetamines. "The danger of buying illegal substances is that you have no way of knowing what is in them, and you will not know how your body will respond until you ingest them. Using your body as a human laboratory can kill you. These drugs should be analyzed in a lab, not on the human body in a social setting", Allen added.
"Ecstasy is anything but what its name implies - it offers only addiction, pain, and regret," said DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy, "As this Operation shows, we will discover, dismantle, and, together, decimate Ecstasy trafficking organizations from the kingpin to the street dealer. With Canada, the U.S. shares more than a border - we share the determination to reclaim our neighbourhoods from the grip of drugs."
Operation Sweet Tooth is a U.S. based investigation involving the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Attorney's Offices, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Attorneys Department Criminal Justice Division, and various U.S. state and local law enforcement agencies, with assistance from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canadian Border Services Agency and the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security. |
