A year-long joint investigation between U.S. and Canadian agencies has led to the largest fentanyl bust in the history of the Ontario Provincial Police.
Canadian authorities announced Wednesday that they seized 46 kilograms, or roughly 101 pounds, of suspected fentanyl — an amount police say is “capable of taking the lives of a moderately sized city.” The Ontario Provincial Police and Windsor Police Service were involved in the investigation.
“This operation has a direct impact on the city of Windsor,” said Windsor Police Service Deputy Chief Jason Crowley. “Removing this volume of fentanyl from our streets saves lives.”
The estimated street value of the suspected fentanyl is $6.5 million in Canadian dollars, and amounts to roughly 460,000 street-level doses.
The joint operation known as Project Rotherham, which involved several units of the Ontario Provincial Police and the Windsor Police Service’s drugs and gun unit, began in the fall of 2024 and identified two primary members of a drug trafficking network, according to police.
On Sept. 25, police executed three vehicle search warrants and three residence search warrants, and evidence gathered from those warrants led authorities to serve an additional search warrant at a residence in Windsor.
In addition to seizing the 46 kilograms of suspected fentanyl, police recovered $171,000 in Canadian currency, 3.4 kilograms of suspected cocaine, 1 kilogram of suspected heroin, 4,500 hydromorphone tablets, 470 benzodiazepine tablets, 360 morphine tablets, 190 oxycodone tablets, 35 amphetamine tablets, more than 181 kilograms of caffeine, which police say is often used as a cutting agent when processing illicit drugs, two loaded firearms and ammunition, body armour, a collapsable baton, more than 20 cellphones, high-end jewelry as well as a master key vehicle programmer, blank keys and digital scales.
Police say the fentanyl seized was mixed and cut with other substances and was not pure fentanyl.
“The prevalence of this dangerous drug is a public safety issue that law enforcement takes seriously, and we will work together across jurisdictions, across provincial borders and even international borders, to dismantle and disrupt those who choose to engage in trafficking this deadly drug. We are united in our enforcement efforts,” said Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Mike Stoddart in a statement.
