Four Toronto residents have been charged with importing cocaine, following a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation.
It was an extensive search into a large-scale drug importation network, according to the RCMP Federal Policing Transnational Serious and Organized Crime (TSOC).
Four search warrants were issued on Jan. 11. in connection with the investigation.
As a result, over $800,000 was seized, along with 88 units of Ether cryptocurrency, a 2022 Mercedes Benz G-wagon and over $2 million in jewelry, watches and other luxury items, police said in a news release on Friday.
Toronto residents Eyob Haile-Michael (36), 22-year-old Abigail Bergman, 40-year-old Hillaway Haile-Michael and Nuriya Kemal (32) are all facing charges.
Haile-Michael remains in police custody, while the three others are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 22.
“With assistance from our policing partners, the RCMP’s TSOC enforcement team has successfully disrupted this large-scale drug importation and trafficking network operating from the GTA,” Staff Sergeant Peter Ready, acting officer in charge of the Toronto North TSOC team, said in the release.
The investigation included assistance from Canada Border Services Agency, Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, Barrie Police Service, Brantford Police Service, and Toronto Police Service, as well as the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada.
The arrests come just days before separate charges were laid against three Kitchener, Ont. residents who allegedly smuggled 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into Canada.
