The Gazette (Montreal)
May 13, 2005 Friday
Final Edition
Dial-up drug ring busted: Dealers delivered. Operated out of
Cartierville, Park Ex
by MICHELLE LALONDE, The Gazette
A major Montreal police operation dubbed Operation Noxious has busted
a dial-up drug delivery service operating out of Cartierville and
Park Extension.
Carefully selected patrons in those neighbourhoods could dial one of
two phone numbers to have drugs delivered by car to any street
corner, metro station or park in the two neighbourhoods. The service
was making about 80 deliveries a day.
One phone number was for clients wanting marijuana or hashish, the
other was for ordering virtually any other narcotic or prescription
drug available on the street, including cocaine, crack, ecstasy, GHB
(known as the “date-rape drug”) and Viagra.
More than 150 police officers were involved in the three-month
investigation, which culminated yesterday in simultaneous drug
seizures in four municipalities. Fourteen people were arrested.
Nine men alleged to be the key dealers in the scheme were arrested.
Two other men and three women were also arrested.
Police said the ring was controlled by one of Montreal’s “Italian
Mafia” families, but the nine dealers arrested yesterday were mostly
of Greek or Armenian ancestry, reflecting the ethnic makeup of the
neighbourhoods in which they operated.
“The facts indicate this Greek criminal organization is linked to the
Montreal Italian Mafia,” said Commander Jean-Pierre Synnett, of the
Montreal police narcotics squad. He said the same crime family, which
he would not name, is running drug-trafficking operations in Laval,
St. Lazare and La Plaine, about 40 kilometres northeast of Montreal.
The nine main targets of the operation are to be arraigned on charges
including drug trafficking, conspiracy and possession of illegal
weapons.
At 12 locations in Montreal, Laval, St. Lazare and La Plaine, police
seized a total of $74,230 in cash, five cars, two .22-calibre
firearms, a 9-millimetre pistol, 180 mature marijuana plants, a large
quantity of marijuana ready for sale, about 110 grams (four ounces)
of cocaine, 350 crack rocks, 250 millilitres of GHB, 77 ecstasy
pills, 17 Viagra pills and other unidentified pills.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress