Guns, drugs and gangs: Police in Thunder Bay, Ont., concerned over rise in violent street crime
CBC
The Thunder Bay Police Service is concerned over the safety of the public and its own officers amid more incidents involving gangs and guns, with one expert linking the rise in violent street crimes to the northwestern Ontario city bordering the U.S., an attraction for organized crime groups.
Det.-Insp. John Fennell said the police service has seen a steady increase in seized illegal firearms over the last few years.
The number of guns seized by police went from zero In 2018 to six the next year; in 2020, 15 illegal firearms, directly resulting from drug-related search warrants, were seized. {A total of 39 guns were seized in 2020, but Fennell said involved minor infractions such as improper storage.)
Already this year, as of Monday, 15 guns have been seized as part of drug warrants.
"Firearms-related [crimes are] becoming a huge concern," Fennell said. "We treat it extremely seriously."
Since 2018, there have been eight attempted homicides, with three of them involving guns in Thunder Bay, Fennell said.
In the most recent shooting reported by police, on Saturday night on May Street South, a male from Ontario's Niagara region was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. As of Wednesday, no arrests have been reported.
Police say gang and drug activity is also on the rise. As of Monday, police had executed "well over" 100 drug-related search warrants, Fennell said, and arrested 221 people; 138 of the total arrested are from outside Thunder Bay.
As well, there have been 830 charges laid in relation to drug investigations and 38 home takeover investigations.
So far this year, police have seized large amounts of various illicit drugs, including:
As of the end of September, Fennell said, there had been 282 overdoses (74 of them fatal) in Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay's rising gun, drug and gang activity is no coincidence, said former police officer Stephen Metelsky, who teaches criminal psychology at Mohawk College and lectures on organized crime at Queen's University.
The city attracts organized crime groups due to its location near the U.S.-Canada border, he said
"It facilitates their rackets. The majority of that, their top two over the years, have been drugs, gambling. And then you're seeing things like gun and human trafficking really spiking as well.
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