Eight Month-Long Undercover Operation Nets Cops A Mountain Of Narcotics

At first glance, it is an impressive sight. Row after row after row of coloured pills, coloured bills, powders and potions. It looks pretty from a distance but the intent of all the material is anything but good willed.

It’s the display put on by Peel Police at their Hurontario Headquarters Friday morning of the $4 million drug bust that’s left cops with 70,000 Ecstasy tablets, 205 kilos of cocaine, seven grams of Ketamine, known as Special K on the street, and a quantity of marijuana.

It was all part of a massive undercover operation called “Vanquish” that has taken all those drugs off the streets – along with $12,000 in cash.

Arrests in the eighth month-long project actually began in July, and continued into August, September and October, when more collars were made. In all, ten people are facing a total of 39 charges ranging from conspiracy to trafficking.

“This was an undercover investigation,” notes Inspector Lee Weare.  “Some of the ecstasy that we seized, 70,000 of these tablets were actual hand-to-hand transactions with undercover police officers and the other 135,000 tablets were as a result of executing a search warrant in a residence in Toronto.”

Peel cops worked with officers from several jurisdictions to make the hauls, and while some of those accused are from Mississauga and Brampton, most actually reside in Toronto.

Cops believe they’ve made a big dent with their big bust. “These individuals have the ability to sell at the kilo level and at the multi-thousand tablet level of Ecstasy and these are dangerous traffickers in the city of Toronto,” alleges Weare.

Experts warn that the use of club drugs like Ecstasy and Ketamine are extremely dangerous and could prove fatal.

“Sometimes people are trying for what’s called a “K” hole,” explains CAMH Pharmacist Wendy Wood, referring to the lifeless stupor that can follow a heavy dose of Ketamine.  “A couple of the dangers are that if someone maybe has been drinking as well, that if they throw up, sometimes they won’t be able to move, or they also don’t have a good perception of pain. So sometimes they can injure themselves.”

The list of those charged:

July:

Van Thien Ly, 32, of Toronto,
Tin Lieu, 23, of Toronto
Long Bao, 25, of Toronto.
Drugs seized included two kilograms of Cocaine.
Charges: Trafficking

August

Hien Nguyen, 46, from Mississauga
Tran Bao, 23, from Brampton.
Drugs seized included two kilograms of Cocaine.
Charges: Trafficking

September

Lewis Gao, 40, of Toronto
Gia Qing Shi, 35, of from Toronto.
Drugs seized included 135,575 Ecstasy tablets, one kilogram of Cocaine, four kilograms of Ketamine and 480 grams of Marijuana.
Charges: Trafficking

October

Mone-Bong Yang, 42, of Toronto,
Szu-Yuan Chen, 32, of Toronto
Po Yen Lee, 27, of Toronto
Drugs seized included 70,000 tablets of Ecstasy and three kilograms of Ketamine.
Charges: Conspiracy and Trafficking.

 

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