The Release Existed After All and It Was Filed Under Federal Policing Eastern Region: the RCMP Document on Project Chrome Names Its Own Money Laundering Team, Dates the Searches to March 2024, and Still Will Not Name the Organization (September 29, 2026)
The earlier briefing on this file recorded that the reporting said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had issued a news release on Project Chrome, and that no such release could be located on the force’s website. It exists. It sits at rcmp.ca/en/news/2026/09/4357357, published by RCMP Federal Policing Eastern Region and dated September 29, 2026, and it does not appear in the national news feed for that day, which is why it was missed. Four things that were outlet-only yesterday are now in the force’s own words: which units ran the investigation, when the searches happened, where they happened, and what the money is alleged to have been spent on. Everything else the earlier briefing recorded as absent is still absent, including the name of the criminal organization, any charge attached to any individual accused, any file number, and any quotation from anyone.
The units, stated by the force for the first time
Yesterday the unit question could not be settled. One outlet account described the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and another the Money Laundering Investigative Team, and the earlier briefing recorded both versions rather than reconciling them. The release settles it by naming all of them. The investigation was carried by the RCMP’s Organized and Financial Crime Program, with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, the Money Laundering Investigative Team and the Canada Revenue Agency. The two outlet accounts were each describing a part of the same file.
That matters for one reason beyond tidiness. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit is a named anti-organized-crime unit, and a file it attaches its name to is an organized crime file on the force’s own terms, whatever the force declines to call the organization. The Money Laundering Investigative Team being on the same document is the clearest published statement of what the four years between opening and charging were spent on.
March 2024, and northeast Montreal
The earlier briefing could date the searches only to 2024 and place them only in the Montreal area, because that is as far as the outlet accounts went. The release dates them to March 2024 and describes them as approximately twenty residential and commercial properties, primarily in northeast Montreal.
The month closes a gap of considerable size. Searches in March 2024 and charges laid in September 2026 put thirty months between the doors coming off and the accused being called to court — not the loose “two years” the earlier figure allowed, and long enough that the interval is the story of the file rather than an administrative detail of it. The description of the properties as residential and commercial, rather than residences alone, is the first published indication that businesses themselves were searched.
What the money is alleged to have bought
The laundering allegation now has a shape. The release alleges that proceeds from the sale of drugs financed renovations to buildings linked to members of the criminal organization, and financed an illegal gaming operation in Montreal.
The earlier briefing recorded that money was alleged to have been laundered through businesses, that none was named, and that an illegal gaming house was placed in Montreal and nowhere more precise. Both remain true. What is new is the direction of the allegation: the buildings are not described as laundering vehicles in the abstract but as buildings renovated with drug money and linked to members of the organization, which is also the likeliest explanation for six buildings being placed under restraint order rather than seized. Neither the buildings nor the gaming operation is located, dated or valued individually, and no charge in the published list is tied specifically to either.
What the release adds, and what it does not
- Adds — the units: the Organized and Financial Crime Program, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, the Money Laundering Investigative Team and the Canada Revenue Agency, named by the force rather than inferred from two competing outlet accounts.
- Adds — the search date: March 2024, previously published only as 2024.
- Adds — the search geography: approximately twenty residential and commercial properties, primarily northeast Montreal, previously only “the Montreal area.”
- Adds — the laundering allegation: proceeds are alleged to have financed renovations to buildings linked to members of the criminal organization, and an illegal gaming operation in Montreal.
- Confirms: all fifteen names, ages and municipalities; the charge list; fourteen kilograms of cocaine, more than $145,000 in cash and six buildings under restraint worth more than $9 million; fifteen accused expected at the Montreal courthouse by videoconference and a sixteenth outstanding abroad.
- Still absent — the organization: not named. The release refers to an alleged criminal organization and to members of it, and uses no family name, clan name or group name of any kind.
- Still absent — per-accused charges: no count is attached to any individual, including the two men alleged to have led the group.
- Still absent — a quotation: the release carries none and names no officer. The remarks attributed to Cpl. Martina Pillarova remain outlet-only and appear nowhere in the force’s document.
- Still absent: any file or docket number, any court date beyond the day of the announcement, any custody status for any of the fifteen, the identity or country of the sixteenth accused, and any address for the six restrained buildings or the gaming operation.
- Still absent — the financial arithmetic: the roughly 100 bank accounts, 45,000 transactions and 80,000 documents reported by outlets do not appear in the release, and remain outlet-only figures.
Timeline
- 2022 — month unpublishedThe RCMP opens Project Chrome. The release confirms the year and adds no month.
- March 2024 — northeast MontrealSearches at approximately twenty residential and commercial properties, primarily in northeast Montreal. This date and this description appear in the force’s release and in no outlet account located.
- September 29, 2026 — 8:15 a.m. EasternNoovo Info publishes the fifteen names and ages, the first account of the file to appear anywhere.
- September 29, 2026 — datedRCMP Federal Policing Eastern Region publishes its release at rcmp.ca/en/news/2026/09/4357357. It does not appear in the force’s national news feed for the day, which carried twenty items and none from Quebec. The Federal Policing Eastern Region feed lists the same item as September 28; the release page reads September 29, and the discrepancy is recorded here rather than resolved.
- September 29, 2026 — courthouseFifteen accused are expected at the Montreal courthouse, most by videoconference. The sixteenth is outstanding and believed to be outside the country.
- September 30, 2026 — locatedThe release is located. This site’s briefing of the previous day recorded that it could not be, and that correction is the occasion for this one.
Publisher of the release. Not the national newsroom, which is why the document did not surface in the national feed for September 29, 2026.
Named by the force as carrying the investigation.
Named in the release. A named anti-organized-crime unit on a file whose alleged organization the force will not name.
Named in the release alongside CFSEU. Both unit descriptions that competed in yesterday’s outlet accounts appear on the same document.
Named as assisting. Income Tax Act offences are among the charges; no CRA official is named or quoted.
Sources
- “Project Chrome: 16 people charged in connection with cocaine trafficking,” RCMP Federal Policing Eastern Region, dated September 29, 2026 — the unit names, the March 2024 search date, the approximately twenty residential and commercial properties primarily in northeast Montreal, the renovation and gaming-operation allegation, the fifteen names with ages and municipalities, the charge list, and the seizure and restraint inventory — rcmp.ca
- This site’s briefing of September 29, 2026 on Project Chrome — the record this follow-up corrects and builds on, including the three outlet accounts it was built from and its finding that no RCMP release could be located — ganglandfiles.com
- “Trafic de cocaïne: 16 personnes visées par de multiples accusations,” Noovo Info, September 29, 2026, 8:15 a.m. Eastern — the first published account of the file and the source of the fifteen names — noovo.info
This briefing adds what the Royal Canadian Mounted Police release adds and nothing else. The release alleges offences committed for the benefit of a criminal organization and refers to members of that organization; it does not name the organization, and no mafia clan, family, street gang or outlaw motorcycle club is named here or implied by the surnames of the accused. Where outlets have applied a family or clan label to this file, that label is theirs and not the force’s, and it is not repeated here. The remarks attributed to Cpl. Martina Pillarova appear in outlet reporting and not in the release. Allegations are the Crown’s and the police’s. Sixteen people are charged, fifteen of them named; a charge is not a conviction, none of these allegations has been tested in court, and every accused is presumed innocent.