‘Significant’ drug bust takes fentanyl off Norfolk streets

While busting an alleged drug dealer in Delhi, officers with Norfolk County OPP’s street crime unit seized drugs, weapons and property worth more than $380,000. 

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

While busting an alleged drug dealer in Delhi, officers with Norfolk County OPP’s street crime unit seized drugs and property worth more than $380,000, along with a cache of weapons.

According to an OPP media release, officers converged on an Aberdeen Avenue house on Jan. 30 around 10:15 a.m.

Police arrested two people inside the house and searched the property, including a sedan parked outside. Officers seized suspected fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, oxycodone and Dilaudid, along with a prohibited weapon, Canadian currency and the car.

Searching a house and car on Leslie Avenue in Port Dover connected to the same investigation turned up more drugs, drug paraphernalia and numerous weapons — some prohibited — including a crossbow, half a dozen knives, nine throwing stars, a long gun and a replica handgun.

The drugs seized at the Dover house are suspected of being fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine, police said.

Police charged a 33-year-old Norfolk woman with drug possession, while a 44-year-old Norfolk man faced almost 50 charges, including seven related to drug trafficking and 17 weapons charges, along with 23 counts of breaching probation.

The two had bail hearings pending in Simcoe.

Insp. Andy Tait commended the “outstanding efforts” of the street crime unit that led to “a significant arrest and major drug seizure.”

Thirty years ago, finding a drug dealer packing heat would have caused a stir at the Simcoe police station. These days it happens all the time, Tait told members of the OPP Detachment Board at a recent meeting.

“I remember back in 1999 when one of our drug team units stopped a vehicle and found a firearm in the vehicle. We were all crowded around the car. We’d never seen anything like this,” Tait said.

“And now, unfortunately, it’s very prevalent. Any investigations that are done by our specialty units with respect to drugs, they are finding firearms.”

That trend heightens the danger for officers executing drug warrants, Tait added.

“Obviously, from an officer safety perspective, our officers have to be very aware of that and attuned to that,” he said.

“With the drug culture, (guns) kind of go hand in hand.”

Tait said he hopes Canada’s efforts to tighten border security in response to pressure from the United States will make gun smuggling “more difficult.”

Last year, Norfolk’s street crime unit executed 28 search warrants and laid 304 charges related to drug investigations, seizing drugs with an estimated street value of $113,000.

“A very, very sizeable impact to the drug culture here,” Tait said of the street crime unit’s ongoing efforts to “curb the drug scene” in Norfolk.

J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.