60 CHARGED IN FOUR PROVINCES AFTER RAID ON GANGS

It took 900 officers to seize 2.75 kilograms of cocaine and 27 guns
in a Canada-wide raid.

Almost 400 charges were laid on Wednesday against the 60 people
arrested in four provinces on Tuesday morning, the result of an
eight-month long investigation into Toronto street gangs.

The raids also netted $110,000 and small quantities of marijuana and
the drug ecstasy. Officers also seized 27 guns over the course of the
investigation.

Dubbed Project Marvel, the probe culminated with 900 officers,
including 400 heavily armed members of tactical units, executing 67
search warrants, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area, but as far
afield as Surrey, B.C.

A similar crackdown in 2009 netted 40 firearms, $431,000 and 43
pounds of cocaine. And two operations in Southern Ontario in 2008
confiscated 35 handguns and drugs with a combined street value of $160-million.

Acting Deputy Chief Jeff McGuire with the Toronto police said the
latest investigation, which involved the RCMP and Ontario Provincial
Police, demonstrated the importance of police agencies sharing
intelligence and working together to combat crime across the country.

The operation has been criticized as insignificant because, despite
its size, it netted just 60 people connected to Toronto gangs, when
members of gangs have been estimated to number about 30,000.

The accused include 10 youths, two of whom face charges of aggravated
assault and assault with a weapon.

Investigators are tracing the source of the weapons, and are working
with U.S. authorities to determine whether they were smuggled across the border.