Four of the Twenty-Six Counts Are for Having a Gun Each Was Already Barred From Touching, and the Stolen Property Ran to Twenty-Five Milwaukee Tools and Two Portable Grills: North Bay Police Charge Jacob Tyler Burns, 41, and Sky Depencier, 25, After an Assault Call (September 28, 2026)

An assault complaint is not usually where a hundred thousand dollars of fentanyl comes from. This one was. Six days after North Bay police opened an assault investigation, a search warrant on Trout Lake Road produced 463 grams of suspected fentanyl, 217 grams of crystal methamphetamine, a loaded .22-calibre revolver and a room’s worth of stolen tools — and both people charged were already under court orders forbidding them from possessing a firearm.

The North Bay Police Service published the file on Monday, September 28, 2026 under the headline “Assault Investigation Leads to Seizure of Drugs, Loaded Handgun and Stolen Property.” Rick Wyman of CTV News Northern Ontario carried it the same day at 3:01 p.m. Eastern and updated it at 5:01 p.m.

The Investigation

The service says its investigation began on September 22, 2026 as an assault file. The Patrol Section, the Emergency Response Team and the Street Crime Unit are all named as having taken part. The search warrant was executed at a residence on Trout Lake Road in North Bay; the broadcast account gives the location as the “210100 block,” which is not a conventional civic block designation and is reproduced here as published rather than corrected. The release publishes no occurrence or incident number and no date or time for the warrant itself.

The Seizure

Officers recovered 463 grams of suspected fentanyl and 217 grams of suspected crystal methamphetamine, which the service puts at a combined street value of $104,660. The firearm is described as a .22-calibre revolver-style handgun, seized with nine live .22-calibre bullets. The release does not say whether the nine rounds were in the cylinder or stored separately, which is the distinction the careless-storage counts turn on.

The stolen property is itemised more precisely than the drugs: twenty-five Milwaukee-brand tools and several additional tools, two portable grills, a portable air conditioner, speakers and home security devices. No owner, no theft occurrence, no value and no explanation of how the property was identified as stolen appears in the release.

What the Charge Sheets Say That the Release Does Not

Three details are visible only by reading the counts against each other. The first is that both accused face counts of possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime split between the over-$5,000 and under-$5,000 thresholds — two apiece — which means police are treating at least two separate bodies of property as proceeds, and the release explains neither. The second is that Burns carries three prohibition-order counts and Depencier one, a four-to-one split on a single firearm that suggests the orders binding them are differently worded or differently numerous, and neither order is described. The third is the count of administering a noxious thing, which appears against Depencier alone and against no corresponding description of the assault anywhere in the release. A noxious-thing count ordinarily implies a substance was used on a person. Nothing published says what it was, who it was used on, or what injury followed.

Nor does the release describe the assault at all — no victim, no date, no location, no injury, no relationship between the accused and the complainant. It is the event that opened the file and it is the only part of the file with no facts attached to it.

What This File Is Not

No criminal organization, street gang or outlaw motorcycle club is named anywhere in the release or in the reporting. This file sits on the beat on the facts of the offences themselves: commercial-scale trafficking quantities, and firearm counts against two accused each already bound by a prohibition order. Neither of those requires a gang label and none is applied here. Both accused are presumed innocent and none of the twenty-six counts has been tested in court.

Standing of This File

What is verified. Both accused names, ages and municipality, the full charge lists, the drug weights and stated street value, the firearm description and round count, the stolen property inventory, the units involved, Inspector McFarlane’s name, the custody status and the October 7 court date all come from the North Bay Police Service media release of September 28, 2026. The September 22 investigation start date and the Trout Lake Road location come from CTV News Northern Ontario’s report the same day.

What is missing. Any account of the assault. Any occurrence or incident number. The date and time of the warrant. Whether the nine rounds were loaded in the revolver. Whether the handgun was restricted or prohibited, and whether it was traced. What the noxious thing was. What the prohibition orders arose from and when they were imposed. The owner or value of the stolen property. Any quotation from Inspector McFarlane or anyone else.

What is not claimed. That either accused is connected to any criminal organization; that the drugs and the assault are the same transaction; or that the stolen property is connected to either the drugs or the firearm.

When this will be updated. On the October 7 appearance, on any bail review, on publication of an occurrence number, or on any further charge.