Two Barrie residents have been arrested and charged in connection to an investigation dubbed Project Kakia that was led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS).
Police say the investigation focused on organized crime within Durham Region and surrounding jurisdictions.
The six-month, multi-jurisdictional investigation was headed up by the DRPS guns and gangs enforcement unit in partnership with the RCMP's Transnational Serious and Organized Crime Unit. Further support and funding was provided by the provincial government and Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario.
The criminal networks involved a number of members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club from the Brooklin and Belleville charters, as well as the Red Devils Motorcycle Club, according to police.
Police say the investigation also provided information related to a homicide that occurred in Oshawa on Nov. 29, 2020, which resulted in the arrest of one suspect.
DRPS, RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Peterborough Police Service, Toronto Police Service, Belleville Police Service and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) executed 55 search warrants at locations within Durham Region, Belleville, Madoc, Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto, resulting in 28 people being arrested and 291 being charges laid. Charges range from break and enter, participation in criminal organizations and firearms trafficking to possession of controlled substances, including cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine and cannabis edibles.
Approximately 1.2 million in drugs and 32 firearms were seized along with other related evidence during this investigation, police said in a news release.
Joseph Biancofiore, 57, of Barrie, has been charged with possession of a Schedule I substance (cocaine) for the purpose of trafficking.
Marion Smith, 58, of Barrie, has been charged with two counts of unauthorized possession of a firearm.
The other suspects who have been arrested in connection to Project Kakia are from Oshawa, Belleville, Pickering, Madoc, Binbrook, Haldimand, Markham, Clarington, Lindsay, Ajax, Scarborough, and Scugog.
During the course of Project Kakia, police say they seized:
• 32 firearms
• 2 percussion grenades
• Over-capacity magazines
• Thousands of rounds of ammunition
• 5 motor vehicles
• $290,000 in Canadian currency
• $148,000 in property obtained by crime (Lululemon clothing and 2 Breitling watches)
• 5.5 kilograms of cocaine
• 1.5 kilograms of psilocybin
• 7.7 kilograms of cannabis
• 1.2 kilograms of cannabis resin
• 1.2 kilograms of methamphetamine
• 54 grams of heroin
• 141 grams of Fentanyl powder
• 7,336 fentanyl pills
• 6,187 cannabis edibles packaged as candy
• 20 kilograms of cutting agent
• Outlaw motorcycle clothing
