As a component of a proposed application of the Black Market Cannabis Police Act of the Province of Ontario, investigators say they have exposed operations similar to organized crime and the export of marijuana to the United States.
“We see Americans come in (and) buy rich farm houses, homes with existing greenhouses, which then allow them to seamlessly take them to the illegal hashish production sites,” said the inspiring Jim Walker, a member of the department’s organized crime office. and the Joint Provincial Cannabis Control Team (PJFCET).
“It’s a profit-rich environment for organized crime to generate cash and income. “
Police stated that PJFCET had been active for two years and that it was guilty of enforcing hash law and investigating criminal companies that exploit or abuse the hashish legal market. the seizure of millions of dollars in products and appliances used to grow, grow and distribute marijuana.
Despite border closures, investigators said much of Canada’s illegal marijuana was sent south and profits were then returned in the form of cash, firearms and other drugs, Walker said.
“This is an organized crime that comes from the ability to generate massive profit streams through this product. “
“What the public wants to know is that when they buy it on the illegal black market, their cash facilitates other crimes. “
Officials stated that criminals use Health Canada’s medical hash regime by exploiting others registered with Health Canada and promoting the product on the black market.
“What we’re seeing are more serious fees for marijuana possession or marijuana trafficking, giant amounts, and marijuana export fees that are lately being taken to court, meaning other people are sending marijuana abroad, to the United States and other countries,” said Daniel Brown, vice president of the Criminal Bar Association.
“People who sell and distribute as if they have licenses to sell marijuana when they don’t. “
Police destroyed a large-scale production and distribution network of $42 million in August as a component of project Woolwich, a one-year investigation that resulted in several arrests by others in the Niagara region and the Toronto metropolitan area.
Multijurisdictional research and known Americans involved in the production, wholesale and sale of illicit hashish. The foreign investigation in which investigators seized shipments of illicit hashish into the United States and two giant shipments of U. S. currency to Canada.
Investigators said they believed the defendants in the investigation were also guilty of shipments of large volumes of illegal hashish to Ontario from British Columbia.
“Cross-border police cooperation between the United States and Canada is incredibly important in dismantling transnational criminal organizations that exploit our shared border to carry out their illicit smuggling activities,” said Michael Buckley, National Security Research Officer at the U. S. Embassy in Ottawa.
“(The investigation) makes it clear that the exchange of critical data can effectively lead to the dismantling of criminal organizations in both countries. “
A total of 15 other people were charged with 135 offences under the Cannabis Act, the Substances and Controlled Drugs Act and the Canadian Penal Code.
Ontario Provincial Police is expected to obtain more data on the instances in which the specialized unit is running in the coming days.