Seven charged, nearly $1M in drugs seized in Southwestern Ontario probe

Seven people across Southwestern Ontario are facing charges after drugs worth nearly $1 million were seized in Chatham-Kent, London and St. Thomas in a joint police operation called Project Breakout.

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Chatham-Kent police had already been investigating drug-trafficking there when they turned up information identifying other locations and suspects in the region beyond, which brought the OPP’s joint forces guns and gangs enforcement team and St. Thomas police into the picture, police said Thursday .

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Police forces in London and Windsor also became involved, with four locations searched in Chatham and four others in London and St. Thomas on Oct. 4.

Seven people were arrested, 87 criminal charges laid, several weapons seized and drugs with a street value of nearly $1 million confiscated, including more than 3,600 grams of fentanyl, a potent opioid implicated in many drug overdose deaths.

As little as two milligrams of fentanyl, the equivalent of about four grains of salt, can kill a first-time user. It’s 100 times more powerful than heroin.

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Four people, charged with numerous drug and weapons offenses, were released to appear in court later, police said.

Three others were held for bail hearings, including a 37-year-old Chatham man charged with six counts of drug possession for the purposes of trafficking. He’s also charged with 15 other offenses, including weapons violations.

A 41-year-old Chatham man is charged with five counts of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking, and nine other offenses, including ones related to weapons possession and storage.

In St. Thomas, 30, faces four firearms offenses and two other charges.

In a statement, Chatham-Kent police credited “the cooperative assistance of the police agencies involved” in ensuring that “the significant amount of drugs and weapons were taken off the streets in our communities.”

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