Montreal area is focal point in two police cases
Montreal and cities surrounding it were the focus of two major police investigations in recent days involving one of the most addictive drugs being sold across Canada.
On Friday, the Montreal police carried out a series of search warrants in Montreal, L’Assomption, St-Marc-sur-Richelieu and Brossard in an effort to dismantle what they alleged were clandestine labs that produced narcotics, including the highly addictive opioid fentanyl, which has been attributed to more than 1,000 deaths through overdose in British Columbia alone since the start of 2016. The Montreal police alleged the drug labs were tied to an outlaw motorcycle gang.
On Saturday, a Montreal police spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing, but was unable to say whether anyone had been charged in connection with it.
On Thursday, a LaSalle resident named Oscar (Reppo) Dobson, 38, was among 18 people arrested as part of an investigation led by the Ontario Provincial Police dubbed Project Silkstone. Dobson faces three charges of conspiracy to traffic in fentanyl in an Ontario court.
In 2014, Dobson, who is alleged to be a member of a Montreal street gang, was sentenced to an overall five-year prison term after having pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and possession of a prohibited firearm. When he was arrested in that case in 2011, the Montreal police alleged Dobson was the leader among a group of four men who sold crack and cocaine in western Montreal and in Ottawa. His sentence expired in September 2015, or roughly just before the Project Silkstone investigation began.
According to a statement issued by the OPP, the 18-month investigation targeted “multiple criminal groups involved in trafficking illegal drugs and guns along the Highway 401 corridor between the Greater Toronto Area, through the Belleville/ Bay of Quinte region and Montreal.” The police seized 11,500 fentanyl pills during the investigation. They also seized 23 firearms and Hells Angels gang paraphernalia.
“Normally I wouldn’t give out evidence at a media conference such as this, but I can tell you I have no problem letting you know that we have audio recordings of drug traffickers who callously admitted that the enormous profits that can be made from fentanyl far outweighs the potential overdose deaths that can come about as a result of them dealing these drugs,” said OPP Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum during a press conference held on Thursday after the arrests in Project Silkstone were made.
A map presented at the press conference depicts the fentanyl distributed to the Greater Toronto Area as having originated in Montreal. The same map shows that fentanyl was also shipped from Montreal to Connecticut.
According to a list supplied by the OPP, Dobson and three other men from Ontario are the only people among the 18 arrested who face charges related to trafficking in fentanyl. The others face a variety of charges involving firearms and the trafficking of other drugs like cocaine and ecstasy.
Dobson’s criminal record includes a conviction, in 2001, for attempted murder.
He was sentenced to an eightyear prison term for his role in a shooting in which an 18-year-old man was struck by several bullets while he stood in the entrance to an apartment building on Vézina St. in LaSalle.