Toronto police say they’ve made the largest single seizure of crime guns in the service’s history, including 60 handguns from an alleged gang gunrunner.
In total, police seized 75 handguns, 270 rounds of ammunition, 75 magazines, 55 overcapacity magazines, four tasers, three long guns, a bulletproof vest, 200 digital devices, a drill press used in a handgun-manufacturing operation and more than $1-million worth of drugs including cocaine, fentanyl, carfentanil, heroin and cannabis.
The raids, executed on Thursday morning, dealt a significant blow to the Five Point Generalz, one of the largest gangs in Toronto, said acting Inspector Don Belanger of the Gun and Gang Task Force. Its members have been connected to multiple alleged murders, attempted murders, firearm offences, robberies and sexual assaults since the gang’s inception in the late 1990s. Insp. Belanger did not answer questions about which specific cases police think the gang is connected to.
Many of the guns seized are brightly coloured and look like water guns at first glance. Insp. Belanger said it is something police have seen before, but never to this extent. He said police officers would be receiving a safety bulletin soon so they don’t mistake real guns for toys.
“Many of these guns, if they were to be pointed at a police officer, they could very easily conclude that either a toy gun, or a water pistol for that matter, is being pointed at them,” he said.
Deputy Chief Jim Ramer said the trend is a “huge concern” for officer safety.
“When I first saw them I commented that the one in orange looked like a water pistol my granddaughter has,” he said, nodding at a handgun in tiger-camouflage print.
More than 1,000 charges will be laid, including unlawful possession of firearms, reckless discharge, trafficking and importation; drug possession and trafficking; and robbery. Deputy Chief Ramer said he is confident many of those arrested face jail time. The operation is still fluid and ongoing, Insp. Belanger said.
Insp. Belanger said police arrested the gang’s “highest-ranking members” and that the operation significantly disrupted the gang’s hierarchy, but that he is not “naive” enough to think that this is a killing blow.
“We realize it creates a void. We realize that drugs equal easy money and that there will always be people willing to step in and fill that void,” he said.
Fifty-three search and arrest warrants were executed in the Toronto, Peel, Durham and York regions early Thursday morning. Over the entire operation, which began in September, 2017, police say they arrested 75 people in connection with the Five Point Generalz, including nine women and two people under 18. Sixty-eight have prior criminal records. Police said they arrested 13 people who had been previously arrested during a similar operation, Project Corral, in 2010.
No injuries were sustained during the Thursday arrests, Insp. Belanger said.
Sixty of the handguns came from a single seizure from an alleged gunrunner for the gang. Police say they’ve also identified a gun seller from Florida who had been supplying the gang with guns for resale.
A “clean” handgun that hasn’t been used in a previous shooting can be purchased south of the border for US$500 and then resold on Toronto streets for about $4,000 – the guns seized would have fetched a total of $200,000 in profit for the gang, police said.
Florida is not traditionally a source of smuggled guns to Toronto, Insp. Belanger said, and “although it was a sophisticated operation, we feel that we’ve shut it down in its early stages.”
Insp. Belanger said the gang’s gun and drug smuggling reached into the United States and throughout the Caribbean.
Deputy Chief Ramer thanked the communities in which the raids took place for their patience and urged anyone affected, including family members of those arrested, to reach out to the TPS Victim Services Agencies for free assistance.