'Meth' in Eastern Ontario: Police seize 6,500 drug tablets and lay charges against 21 people

Rural communities in Ontario are increasingly dealing with organized crime selling "speed pills" and prescription-strength painkillers, say the OPP.

Officers say the proof is a recent seizure of more than 6,500 pills after an undercover operation.

On July 30 in Embrun, police announced the results of two operations, which involved several undercover officers working in Hawkesbury, Alexandria and Russell township.

The OPP have outstanding warrants for five people and have arrested 16. In total the accused face 148 criminal offences including trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime and weapons offences.

Officers say they confiscated 6,590 tablets which they call methamphetamines. They also say they confiscated 103 grams of cocaine and 182 tablets of steroids. The prescription drug Oxycodone was also found to be traded illegally in the region.

During the operation the OPP seized 878 tablets of the painkiller, which they say is being ground up and snorted or injected.

“During the undercover probe, it became evident to investigators that the town of Hawkesbury was saturated with methamphetamine and other illicit drugs such as cocaine and various opoids. Street-level trafficers bragged openly about having a hard time meeting the constant demand for methamphetamine distribution in the town of Hawkesbury,” said OPP detective inspector Bryan Martin.

Police also alledge one of those charged in Hawkesbury bragged about selling 1,000 speed pills in an hour.

Martin said that within the past two years, at least three cases of methamphetamine overdoses had been reported in Hawkesbury. He called "speed" the most dangerous and addictive drug that police are encountering, and said the pills are increasingly being sold in rural regions.

Oxycodone on the rise, say OPP

Martin said Oxycodone is similar to heroin, since users crush the pills, melt them and inject them with needles.

He said the prescription-strengh painkiller is highly addictive and is often deadly.

According to Martin, users inject rather than eat the drug because it hits the system more quickly; however the drug is highly addictive and can cause heart failure.

“The abuse of prescription medication such as Oxycodone has increased over the last five years. OPP drug teams throughout the province confirm that the presence of Oxycodone is on the rise and is routinely seized in drug investigations. Recent intelligence also suggests that organized crime is involved in the counterfeiting of Oxycodone pills in Ontario,” Martin said.

During the raids, police did not find laboratories for the manufacture of the drugs.

Martin said police believed the drugs are beinjg brought to the region by organized crime.

Hawkesbury mayor responds

Hawkesbury Mayor Jeanne Charlebois, who attended the press conference, thanked police for their work. “When I hear this I am not happy,” she said.

“I am realistic enough to know that you will not be able to eradicate this. But I appreciate what you have done and I would ask you to stay vigilant. We have two high schools and elementary schools in the town. I know you cannot stop this situation entirely, but I want to know you are stomping it out as much as possible,” she said. “I thank you for your work.”

Four suspects missing
Police currently have outstanding warrants for five people. They are seeking the public’s help in finding the accused.

Those being pursued are Marc Joly, 29, of Hawkesbury; Pierre Jubinville, 53, of Wendover; Roy Borris, 48, of Brownsburg-Chatam and a minor from Hawkesbury who cannot be named according to Canadian law.

Hawkesbury resident Shawn Provincial, 38, is also being sought on a variety of trafficking charges. Police alledge he was selling methamphetamines behind the counter of the In Style clothing store on Hawkesbury’s Main Street, where police found an illegal 12-gauge shotgun.

Canada's meth industry:
Country is one of world's top exporters, says United Nations

The recent seizure in Hawkesbury of methamphetamines and the prescription painkiller oxycodone is being called very significant by Ontario Provincial Police.
However, police say they don't know where the drugs were made or how they arrived in the region.
OPP say organized crime is responsible for the traffic of drugs, and say motorcycle gangs could be involved.
Detective Sergeant Rick Hawley, the OPP's clandestine lab coordinator, said it is not believed the drugs were manufactured in the region.
He said that operations Dover and Speedway - the name of the recent undercover stings - did not discover any production labs, which could be used to create meth or oxycodone.
The United Nations 2009 World Drug Report says Canada is one of the world's biggest producers of meth, and that levels are increasing.
Between 1998 and 2007 Canadian police forces seized a total of 1.82 tonnes of meth, or more than 1.8 million pills.
However, 85 per cent of that amount was seized only in 2007.
According to the United Nations, Canadian meth accounted for 83 per cent of the total seized in Australia.
The percentage of Canadian pills seized in Japan was 62 per cent.
Canada currently ranks sixth in the world for methamphetamine seizures.
Hawley said the making of the drug takes meticulous chemistry, as well as specialized machines called pill presses which can be hard to obtain and conceal.
Meth pills seized in the OPP's most recent operation were stamped with iconic corporate logos of Quebec such as the grocery store IGA, the owl from Couche-Tard convenience stores, and even the Fleur-de-Lys.

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