A Loaded Glock 36 in a Lundy’s Lane Hotel Room, Held by a Man Already Under a Weapons Prohibition: Niagara’s 2 District Street Crime Unit Charges Antonio Iuliani, 30, and Ashley Lepera, 34, With Fifteen Counts Over 833 Grams of Fentanyl (August 26, 2026)

NIAGARA FALLS — The number that matters in this file is not 833 grams. It is the count buried seventh on the list against Antonio Iuliani: possession of a firearm contrary to a prohibition order. A court had already told the 30-year-old he was not to have a gun. Niagara Regional Police say that when detectives from the 2 District Street Crime Unit went through a hotel room on Lundy’s Lane on August 25, 2026, there was a Glock 36 in it with four rounds in it.

Alongside the handgun, officers seized 833 grams of suspected fentanyl — which the force values at $83,000 — and $6,000 in Canadian currency. Iuliani, of no fixed abode, faces eight counts. Ashley Lepera, 34, also of no fixed abode, faces seven. Both were held for a bail hearing on Wednesday at the Robert S. K. Welch Courthouse in St. Catharines.

Both Accused Were Already Bound by Court Orders

Iuliani and Lepera each face a count of failing to comply with a probation order. That means both were, on the force’s account, already under judicial supervision when the warrant came down. Iuliani carries the additional prohibition-order count, which is a distinct thing: not a bail condition or a probation term about behaviour, but a standing court order barring him from possessing firearms at all.

On this beat that count does the work a gang label would otherwise do. A loaded restricted handgun in the hands of a man a judge has already prohibited from holding one is an organized-crime-adjacent fact on its own terms, whatever police do or do not say about affiliation — and Niagara has said nothing about affiliation.

Four Rounds and a Careless Storage Charge

The Glock 36 is a compact .45-calibre pistol. Four rounds is a partial load, and the release does not say whether they were in the magazine, the chamber, or loose. What the charging pattern does say is that police found the gun accessible rather than secured: careless storage of a firearm is laid against both accused, alongside possession of a loaded regulated firearm.

Laying the identical firearms package against both people in the room is a standard approach where a gun is found in a shared space and no one has claimed it. Whether that survives contact with the courts is a separate question, and the allegations have not been tested.

833 Grams Is Not a Personal Quantity

The force puts the street value at $83,000, working from a round $100 per gram. That figure is a police valuation and should be read as one — street pricing for fentanyl in Niagara varies and enforcement agencies typically use a standard multiplier rather than local sale data.

What is harder to argue with is the weight. Eight hundred and thirty-three grams of a substance dosed in micrograms is wholesale inventory, not a user’s supply, which is presumably why the single count each accused faces on the drug side is trafficking rather than simple possession. The $6,000 in cash draws the proceeds-of-crime count.

A Hotel Room on Lundy’s Lane

Lundy’s Lane is Niagara Falls’ motel strip — kilometres of short-stay accommodation built for tourist volume, which makes it a standing feature in the region’s trafficking files. A rented room requires no lease, no utilities and no fixed address, and the release lists both accused as of no fixed abode.

The arrest sequence is worth noting: detectives took Iuliani on Main Street first and only then went into the room, where Lepera was arrested. Separating the suspect from the premises before executing a warrant is deliberate, and it is what police do when they expect to find a firearm behind the door.