Toronto crime group trafficked drugs, guns into Manitoba: police

Authorities say they have put a dent in a high-level drug trafficking operation from Toronto operating in multiple Canadian provinces and allegedly responsible for bringing large quantities of drugs and guns into Manitoba.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s “Project Lowkey,” which began in April 2024, involved nearly a dozen searches in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It’s led to the seizure of weapons, cocaine, methamphetamine, hydromorphone pills, vehicles and cash.

It’s also resulted in the arrest of nine individuals – mostly from Ontario but also from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the U.S. who are facing dozens of charges. Arrest warrants have been issued for five more suspects – four from Ontario and one from Alberta.

Police allege the group used “sophisticated methods” to transport illicit drugs from Toronto to Winnipeg, where they were then distributed in the city and throughout Manitoba, including in Sandy Bay First Nation, Portage la Prairie, Thompson, Norway House Cree Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake), Nelson House Cree Nation and The Pas.

“We believe Sandy Bay was a hub where the drugs were broken down and subsequently travelling up north, whether that’s First Nation communities and other smaller communities of northern Manitoba,” said Insp. Derek Beach with the Manitoba First Nations Police Service (MFNPS) at a press conference Wednesday.

“Organized crime members from Ontario, Toronto, are coming here because they know that they can come into these communities that are vulnerable in many ways and prey off their vulnerabilities,” added WPS Insp. Josh Ewatski. “And their sole purpose there is to make money off of these people.”

Transportation methods, police allege, included passenger vehicles, chartered buses, boats, trains, parcel shipping companies and commercial airlines. Police add the suspects transporting the drugs used fake identification documents to travel on commercial airlines and railways and to access bank accounts, and they rented hotel rooms or Airbnbs when arriving at their destinations.

The operations of the organized crime group also allegedly reached Newfoundland and Yukon.

“This investigation highlights the capabilities of organized crime groups to extend their reach beyond provincial borders to target communities across the country, including some of our most vulnerable communities in northern Manitoba,” Winnipeg police said in a news release.

As part of “Project Lowkey,” authorities say searches were executed Jan. 31 at nine locations across Winnipeg, Thompson, Sandy Bay, Toronto, Brampton, Scarborough and Saskatoon.

Among the items seized, according to police, were seven handguns with loaded high-capacity magazines; ammunition; 10 kilograms of cocaine; five kilos of meth; 25,000 hydromorphone pills worth approximately half a million dollars; two vehicles; and $280,000 in cash.

Ontario’s Jabreel Elmi – one of Canada’s most wanted suspects – was among the nine individuals arrested. He was wanted for first-degree murder in connection with a triple shooting that claimed the life of a 27-year-old City of Toronto employee in September 2021.

Warrants are out for the arrests of Ontario’s Mohammed Abdirahman, Rahim Khan-Mogakala, Marquez Lerma-Jordan, and Nathan Sylvester, and Alberta’s Aaron Wolf-Plume. All are facing charges of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

Police say the investigation received assistance from RCMP, OPP, Toronto police, Vancouver police, the Saskatoon Police Service, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the MFNPS.