WINDSOR, Ont. Police have busted up a well-organized international narcotics ring — that hid drugs in watermelon shipments and hollowed out pineapples — and used Windsor as a smuggling pipeline.
Investigators say the smuggling scheme also has ties to Eastern Canada, the U.S., Jamaica, Guyana and Costa Rica.
Police have arrested six people and issued warrants for others after the four-month investigation.
“Drug dealers will stop at nothing to get their contraband into this country,†said Supt. Rick Penney, the RCMP Drug Enforcement Commander for the Greater Toronto Area. “It is through this type of inter-agency co-operation that we can thoroughly investigate and dismantle organized criminal groups.â€
Officers with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and various RCMP units from Toronto, New Brunswick and Windsor were all involved in the investigation, along with numerous government agencies from Canada and abroad.
The probe began when CBSA officers in New Brunswick seized a marine container concealing cocaine. The coke was hidden inside hollowed out pineapples. Officers seized 19 kilograms of cocaine that was stuffed in 80 pineapples scattered throughout the shipment.
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The RCMP said they later learned the group had “co-conspirators†in Jamaica, Guyana, Costa Rica and the US.
Police have arrested six people including Denise Sonia Edwards (also known as Pilgram), 46, of Pickering, Dexter Emmanuel Boyce, 43, of Toronto, Abdool Zaman Hakeek, 54, of Scarborough, Linval Earl Brown, 52, of Pickering, Roman Clint McInnis, 42, of Keswick and Lancelot Henry, 45, of St. Catharines.
All charged with various drug-related offences, they were scheduled to appear in a Toronto court Wednesday.[/color]
