There are many ways narcos move dope. Some of them are more inventive than others.
Two groups using different methods were caught this week in a large probe in Canada, with one nest of gangsters
in particular going to an awful lot of trouble soaking textile fibers in cocaine in Colombia
and then using a clandestine lab near Toronto to extract it turning it back into saleable blow
The Mob Reporter here with news of gangsters in and around Canada's largest city engaged in
a battle of wits trying to find clever ways to sneak dope into North America and who, despite
some exceptional effort, found out the hard way that they lost.
Let me tell you about it
The end came in a flurry of raids and arrests. The Ontario Provincial Police and York Regional Police
north of Toronto announced Project Southam on July 15, 2021, an operation targeting significant
international cocaine smuggling. And if it wasn't for a few of the guys allegedly working with both
groups it might well have been announced as two separate probes, but as it is, it was all
wrapped up in one clamorous sweep involving 44 search warrants at 25 locations in Toronto and a
dozen smaller cities and towns around it, including Mississauga, Hamilton, Brampton, Vaughan and Oakville
Police allege two distinct organized crime groups ran high-volume smuggling and trafficking schemes
One importing cocaine from Colombia, imaginatively concealed in textiles, and another flying cocaine
from the Caribbean as well as exporting illegal cannabis from Canada into the United States
The textile importation scheme seems a notch above the typical plot which could best be described
as dropping bricks of coke in the bottom of boxes of legitimate goods to export and then covering
them with bananas or pineapples or whatever else and shipping it out hoping for the best. To be sure
a lot of those get through but many are caught. It's basically a numbers game for the narcos
a game of chance — throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. But this one
was more sophisticated, more refined — literally and figuratively. It required chemistry. Sources suggest
that cocaine was liquefied and imbued into the fibers of fabric, strands of which you can see here
The woven fabric was then exported to Canada as textiles. Once in Canada more effort was needed to
extract it back out from the fibers and once again make it a recognizable form of coke. Now, I know
many a junkie would happily suck on a blanket to get their hit, but that would be a harder sell for
a lot of retailers, especially in nightclubs and so a clandestine conversion laboratory was built to
extract the cocaine hydrochloride from the textile fibers and reconstitute it into its saleable
state. Six kilos of coke from this escapade were seized during the operation police say
Now the second group nabbed in the operation is accused of plotting to fly coke in from the
Caribbean, under mysterious circumstances, and also conspiring to export cannabis to the United States
likely using transport trucks because some of those arrested had links to the trucking industry
Curiously, police say they seized 86 kilos of coke that the suspects were attempting to import on
aircraft from the Caribbean. The suspects are accused only of conspiring to import
cocaine, so where on the journey was it stopped. I don't yet know, but the federal agencies involved
in the investigation were based at Toronto's main international airport so presumably that
was its destination. Police wouldn't even say what part of the Caribbean was involved
I'm not a genius but arriving in these bags, I'm going to guess it's Jamaica
Senior investigators said they couldn't say more about it because this part of the
probe is still ongoing and they hope to make further announcements about it in the future
All in all, police arrested 21 people with another considered a fugitive, for 22 people facing charges
Several of those arrested have a history of previous drug charges or suspected drug activity
Two were linked to a pharmacy in Hamilton, west of Toronto, that was raided by federal police some
years ago for allegedly redirecting legitimate narcotics to the black market. A co-accused in that
case was linked to the Musitano crime family, a once-powerful Mafia clan in the city. Investigators
say they seized about $10 million worth of drugs that consists of 92 kilos of cocaine, a kilo
of meth, 249 kilos of cannabis, more than a kilo of magic mushrooms, 21 liters of gamma hydroxybutyrate
255 grams each of ketamine and ecstasy, and nearly a thousand oxycodone pills. They also seized a nine
millimeter handgun, a silver bar worth a few thousand dollars, about $380,000 in cash, seven
vehicles — including a nice-looking BMW SUV — and a cryptocurrency wallet with an unknown balance
When police moved in on their targets there was one suspect they couldn't find
Sukhjit Dhaliwal was still a wanted fugitive at the time I'm recording this
He stands accused of conspiracy to export cannabis. His name was linked to a shocking drug-related
kidnapping some 15 years ago. A transport truck driver was grabbed off the street and stuffed
in a van at gunpoint by four men. A recording of the driver denying he stole 300 kilos of cannabis
as he was apparently smacked around, was later delivered to a Punjabi language newspaper
On that recording the man was heard pleading that his children not be harmed. That captive later
returned home in a taxi with no serious injuries but a subsequent police raid on a house where
he was allegedly held, sparked a shootout during which one suspect was killed and another injured
Those arrested in Project Southam are an ethnically diverse bunch and with five of them being female
it also has more of a gender balance than is often seen but the alleged involvement of Dhaliwal adds
this case to a growing list of recent drug busts in Southern Ontario involving Indo-Canadians
linked to the trucking industry. Just a week before, Canada's border agency said they found this load
hidden in a commercial truck driven by an Indo-Canadian truck driver crossing from
Buffalo, New York, into Fort Erie, Ontario. During a secondary inspection of the truck five duffel bags
were found brimming with 112 and a half kilos of suspected cocaine police say. Now before you blast
off in the comments, no, I can't explain why police say they seized five bags and then gave me a
photograph of four bags. The RCMP gave the seizure an estimated street value of $14 million
Last month, Toronto police announced the bust of a major international drug ring, the largest ever
in the city's history, that used transport trucks with specially constructed secret
compartments to move large quantities of dope across the U.S.-Canada border. Of the 20 people
arrested in that project, codenamed Project Brisa, nearly half were of Indian origin, and in April
York police busted an international smuggling ring allegedly moving bulk product into Canada
from India and California in Project Cheetah. Among those arrested were Indo-Canadian men linked to a
transport truck company. I've told you some of these stories in previous videos and I'll link
to them here and in the description. Project Southam tells us a few other things as well
Once again we see how the underworld needs the help of the upper world to truly thrive. A mortgage
broker and the owner of a pharmacy helped the gangsters launder their money, investigators say
Meaning turning criminal proceeds into accessible, respectable-looking clean cash. Police alleged drug
proceeds were used to buy a one and a half million dollar house. The investigators made it clear
that they hope to make further announcements stemming from Project Southam in the future
as more information is chased down and evidence is followed
It seems that just as with the fabric used to mask the cocaine, there are still some threads to pull
Thanks for watching