PUBLICATION:
The
Toronto Sun
DATE: 2004.02.03
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
News
PAGE:
12
ILLUSTRATION:
photo by Ernest Doroszuk
CONST. Michael Press displays a sawed-off shotgun and .45 calibre handgun seized
-- along with bags full of marijuana -- when police busted a drug network last
week.
BYLINE:
JONATHAN KINGSTONE, TORONTO SUN
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'CULTURE'
OF GUNS, DRUGS LATEST RING CALLED PART OF 'DISTURBING TREND'
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The
number of guns seized in drug busts has soared 600% in the past two years,
Toronto Police said
after smashing a network they say "flew below our radar."
"It's
a very disturbing trend and illustrates the extent to which guns have become a
part of the drug culture in our city," Staff-Insp. Dan Hayes, head of the
Toronto Police drug squad, said yesterday.
Drug squad officers seized 80 firearms last
year -- a 266% increase over the year before when 22 guns were seized and a 627%
hike over the year before that, Hayes said.
EIGHT
ARRESTED
In
the unit's latest bust, a loaded .45-calibre Glock handgun and a 12-gauge
sawed-off shotgun were found after officers said they smashed a cocaine and
marijuana network. Police said they also seized 2.5 kilos of coke, 6 kilos of
pot, and 1,200 Ecstasy pills, with a total value of $668,000. Seven men and one
woman face drug trafficking and weapons charges and warrants have been issued
for two other people.
HIGH-LEVEL
DEALER
"We
feel we have taken out a fairly high-level drug dealer here," Hayes said,
adding the network had gone unnoticed by police. Police first came across the
ring last month in what Hayes said started out as a "low-level" drug
buy involving a "bit player."
Arrests
were made last Thursday after a kilo of cocaine was delivered to an undercover
officer at a downtown hotel, Hayes said. The
cocaine was 96% pure, "some of the purest we've seen in Toronto,"
Hayes said. Charged are Yonge "Frank" Ji, 30, Kelly Byrne, 28, Jake
Beedie, 18, Sungbok Park, 31, Woo Jin Yi, 33, and Troy Blake, 20, all of
Toronto, Dwane Mitchell, 20, of no fixed address, and Marvin Quinteros, 34, of
Brampton.
PUBLICATION:
GLOBE AND MAIL
DATE:
TUE FEB.03,2004
PAGE:
A10
BYLINE:
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
CLASS:
Toronto News
EDITION:
Metro DATELINE:
WORDS:
137
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Toronto in Brief
Number
of illicit firearms soaring, police say
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Underlining
the apparent surge of illegal firearms in Toronto, the number of guns seized by
the drug squad last year soared almost fourfold compared with the previous 12
months. In all, 80 handguns and long guns were
picked up by the squad in 2003, unit commander Staff-Inspector Dan Hayes said.
In 2002 and 2001, the figures were 22 and 11 respectively.
Staff-Insp.
Hayes cited the statistics while outlining a recent buy-bust operation in which
eight Toronto residents are charged with trafficking in cocaine, marijuana and
ecstasy. Along with the drugs, whose street value is estimated at $668,000,
police seized a sawed-off shotgun, a loaded Glock handgun and a Taser stun
device, Staff-Insp. Hayes said. "This doesn't surprise me, but it's very
disturbing," Staff-Insp. Hayes said of the weapons.