KAWARTHA LAKES-Kawartha 411 News has learned that a property on Elm Tree Road, south of Highway 7 was raided as part of an ongoing major drugs and guns investigation dubbed Project Moon.
York Regional Police say there were eight people arrested at the location, all of whom were charged with Produce Marihuana under the Cannabis Act. Investigators seized 600lbs of cannabis and 10lbs of hash.
Police say the names of those charged at this location are:
- Ben VANDERBURG
- Charlene VANDERBURG
- Trang NGUYEN
- Nhung TRUONG
- Loan NGUYEN
- Thinh NGUYEN
- Cuong NGUYEN
- Oach BUI
The investigation began in the summer of 2018. The York Organized Crime Bureau – Guns, Gangs and Drug Enforcement Unit, Major Projects Unit, in a joint forces operation with the Toronto Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario (CISO) focused their efforts on dismantling a large-scale synthetic drug network.
Police say as the investigation progressed, suspects related to Asian organized crime groups and street gangs were found to be producing and supplying methamphetamine, MDMA, shatter and mushrooms. It was also discovered that the suspects were funding their synthetic drug operations through the production and sale of illicit cannabis by abusing the Health Canada medical cannabis licencing system according to police.
Police say police the group allegedly collected numerous Health Canada medicinal marijuana production licenses to conceal a massive cannabis grow operation allegedly running “cannabis factories” out of farms in Kawartha Lakes, Durham and the Leamington area.
On July 3, police raided the farms and allegedly seized a total of 20,000 cannabis plants worth $20 to $40 million and 600 pounds of packaged cannabis.
Police conducted another 17 raids, allegedly seizing cars, 1,250 pounds of packaged marijuana, meth, 15,000 MDMA and ecstasy pills on July 24th. They say they also seized firearms including a Tec-9 submachine gun with a silencer. “The TEC 9 machine gun equipped with a silencer speaks for itself in terms of its danger to the community,” Bedford said in a press conference.
Investigators believe the group employed street gangs, including Toronto’s Parkdale Crips, to move the large quantities of marijuana they produced on the illicit market, and then used the proceeds to produce the synthetic drugs.
As a result of search warrants that were executed across southern Ontario, Investigators have also charged 42 people.
In a separate but linked investigation police seized additional guns, drugs and weapons.
Project Zen began in early 2019, when the Organized Crime Bureau – Major Projects Unit, assisted by Guns, Gangs and Drug Enforcement Unit, working in conjunction with the Canada Border Services Agency, continued an investigation into an alleged organized crime drug ring associated to 14 Zenith Avenue, in the City of Vaughan.
Some of the members of the drug ring had been previously been arrested and charged in 2018 when a suspect in front of a residence was arrested and found to be in possession of more than three kilograms of cocaine according to police.
Police say as the investigation progressed, it was discovered that those previously charged, along with additional suspects, were trafficking high volumes of synthetic drugs.
Search warrants were executed during the investigation and police reportedly seized five semi-automatic handguns, more than $270,000 in currency, more than five kilograms of fentanyl, which is the largest seizure of its kind in York Region,19 kilograms of cocaine, 16.5 kilograms of methamphetamine pills, and more than 56 kilograms of cannabis.
