Seven people sure went green for St. Patrick’s Day and wound up getting caught with $250,000 worth of illicit marijuana packed into their van during a RIDE stop in Innisfil this weekend, according to police.
“It was a regular stop. The vehicle comes through. There was an overpowering smell of fresh cannabis coming from the vehicle,” South Simcoe police Const. Carl Jarvis said on Monday.
Jarvis said he could see “cannabis leaf readily available throughout” the vehicle.
And “lo and behold,” he said, inside the 2017 Dodge Caravan, packed in three boxes, were 29 kilograms (64 pounds) of illicit marijuana.
In the weekend cannabis seizure, seven people, ages 50 to 67, all from southern Ontario, face a total of 28 charges, including possession for the purpose of distribution, possession over 30 grams, possession of illicit cannabis, and distribute cannabis.
In the charges laid Saturday, stemming from a RIDE check which took place at 7 p.m. at 4th Line at Reive Boulevard in Innisfil, the estimated value of the illicit marijuana is based on a street value of $8.50 per gram, South Simcoe police Sgt. Dave Phillips said.
While police could not comment on whether the people charged were suspected of picking up or dropping off the drugs, Phillips said “we can only assume it is being transported through the area.”
“We’re looking at this as a wholesale transaction,” but on the street the cannabis would have been divvied up and sold in smaller sections for more, Phillips said.
“Talking about the black market, as long as they can profit, they will. The black market doesn’t follow rules,” he added.
The production of illegal drugs often comes with other elements such as forced labour, human trafficking, violence, and no quality control, Phillips added.
“We have had three significant drug seizures in the last 90 days,” he said. “Why we’re seeing this influx of ... criminal activity, I can’t speculate that.”
The other two large drug seizures were also made during RIDE checks in December.
In one, a 29-year-old Innisfil man was charged after a foot chase and officers found crack cocaine, crystal meth, heroin, marijuana, and a drug believed to be a combination of fentanyl and carfentanil.
In the other, an Innisfil woman and a Barrie man, both in their early 20s, were charged after officers found $25,500 in cash and 11 grams of suspected cocaine along with drug paraphernalia, baton, knife and baseball bat.
Stopping the distribution of illicit drugs can stop these other activities, said South Simcoe Police Chief Andrew Fletcher.
“We need to keep our roads safer,” he said, adding feedback from a community consultation process encouraged more RIDE checks. “The public wants us to be out there stopping more cars, and that’s the proper way to do it.”
Although there have been a few significant drug seizures through recent RIDE checks, South Simcoe police do not plan to increase their frequency, rather stick to focusing on alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers.
However, “our guys are doing RIDE just about every night” anyway, said Fletcher, adding doing RIDE checks as often as possible is one of the force’s goals this year.
