Project Bay: Historic $139M Drug Bust Shatters Commercial Trucking Cartel Pipeline Across GTA and Windsor Border

WINDSOR & BRAMPTON — In one of the most massive law enforcement actions by weight in Canadian history, an international task force has unsealed “Project Bay,” extracting nearly 1.7 tonnes of pure bulk narcotics and heavy military-grade weaponry.

The multi-agency offensive—led by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and Windsor Police Service, with direct tactical support from Toronto Police and Peel Regional Police—dismantled a criminal broker syndicate embedded inside the commercial transportation industry. The network leveraged legitimate supply chains and commercial transport trucks to move multi-hundred-kilogram shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine directly across the U.S.-Canada border into distribution hubs in Brampton, Kleinburg, Markham, and Caledon.

Commercial Trucking Brokerage Exploited by Cartels

The intelligence probe launched in January 2025 when Windsor Police anti-narcotics units began tracking a high-volume broker network operating at international border crossings. As the scale of the operation expanded into transnational cartel connections, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) joined Canadian federal and municipal tactical teams.

Investigators unsealed a sophisticated broker-style logistics model. Syndicate handlers recruited commercial transport drivers, embedding sealed, palletized loads of raw narcotics alongside legitimate consumer goods inside long-haul semi-trucks crossing border checkpoints. Once across, cargo was redirected to secure industrial staging sites across Brampton and the Greater Toronto Area.

Raids Sweep Brampton, Kleinburg, and Markham

The execution phase unfolded in waves. On June 25, 2026, tactical squads breached 18 residential and commercial coordinates across southwestern Ontario and the GTA. Subsequent raids on July 14 and July 20 targeted secondary processing facilities in Markham, Caledon, and Brampton.

“By removing more than a metric tonne of illegal drugs and multiple firearms from circulation, we have significantly disrupted the flow of harmful substances and removed substantial profits from the criminal economy,” stated OPP Chief Superintendent Mike Stoddart.

Twenty-one individuals face 104 criminal counts, with 19 suspects currently in custody and arrest warrants active for two remaining fugitives. The OPP Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit has initiated proceedings to seize commercial transport fleets, real estate properties, and financial accounts tied to the broker network.