CRIME EMPIRE BUSTED

Police Allege Local Ring Was Trading Drugs Across Border For
Profitable Handguns, Cocaine

An alleged drugs-for-guns crime ring was shut down yesterday when
police hit 36 homes in pre-dawn raids to wrap up Project Blackhawk.

Police in Toronto, York, Durham, Peel, South Simcoe, Waterloo,
Timmins and Guelph, aided by the OPP-led provincial firearms unit,
arrested 27 people and seized 47 guns yesterday.

A number of suspects re -main at large.

Half the raids were in To -ronto. The rest were in surrounding cities
and towns.

The ring, police alleged, operated the country's largest meth lab in Etobicoke.

The project was launched in 2006 when U.S. authorities tipped off
Waterloo police that 237 handguns had been smuggled into Canada.

Police seized only 24 of those 237, and this group al -legedly
smuggled many more guns into the GTA.

Police didn't say how many of those 24 weapons were seized in
yesterday's raids.

RETAILER WAS SOURCE

"We don't have all those guns," Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said.
"We know many of those guns are potentially on the streets and in the
hands of criminals."

He said an undisclosed Chicago-area retailer was apparently the
source of the firearms -- hence the project's Blackhawk name, an
allusion to Chicago's NHL team -- but he wouldn't say if the retailer
knew the guns were being smuggled into Canada in modified vehicles via Windsor.

Many of the suspects lived in a grand style. The most powerful among
the accused lived in the Yorkville area in a highrise condo.

"This is not a street gang," Blair said. "This is a highly organized,
highly successful criminal enterprise."

He alleged the group is a "vast source" of the illegal firearms that
"caused so much death and destruction and fear" in the GTA.

In total, police said they seized 82 firearms during the two-year
investigation.

Toronto intelligence Staff-Insp. Greg Getty said drugs were shipped
to the U.S. for cash, firearms and cocaine.

"We were sending out high-grade hydroponic marijuana, we were sending
out Ecstasy, methamphetamine and a combination of Ecstasy and
methamphetamine," Getty said.

Ecstasy is being laced with greater amounts of meth to get users
addicted, he said.

Getty said the firearms that the crime ring got in return sold for
between $1,500 and $3,000 each.

Blair said police will look into this group's links to other
organized crime groups.

"We are shocked by the extent of the criminal enterprise we have
uncovered in this investigation," he said.

Ralph Nhieu of Vaughan guffawed when he was asked if police found
drugs when they raided his home about 5:30 a.m. yesterday.

A circular indent marks the front door of his posh house near Jane
St. and Major Mackenzie Dr. where the police battering ram hit. Nhieu
and his wife were asleep when police rushed in.

He said the police didn't seize anything; nor was he charged.

"I have to get a lawyer and see what happens," he said. "They explain
they were looking for drugs. No, no drugs, nothing. If I have drugs,
they arrest me."

Blair emphasized the scope of the group's drug empire, alleging it
operated the country's largest meth lab.

In April, after raiding the lab, police closed Sismet Rd., near Dixie
Rd. and Eglinton Ave. for days until volatile chemicals were removed.

50,000 VIAGRA

Blair said 4,000 kilos of meth and Ecstasy powder were found in the
building, along with processed pills ready for sale. Those drugs are
estimated at $160 million.

Police have also seized 59 kilos of meth, 400,000 Ecstasy pills, 3
kilos of coke, 60 kilos of pot, and 50,000 Viagra pills.

Viagra is used for erectile dysfunction and by body builders to
enhance muscle definition.