Massive drugs-for-guns ring broken

TORONTO, June 20 (UPI) -- Toronto police announced a "highly organized" drugs-for-guns ring had been broken after 36 raids throughout Ontario by nine police forces.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said at a news conference that half of the raids were in the city and the rest to the north and west, the Toronto Sun reported.

"This is not a street gang," Blair said. "This is a highly organized, highly successful criminal enterprise."

The investigation was dubbed Operation Blackhawk for the city of Chicago, where tips about 237 handguns being smuggled into Canada originated in 2006. Blair said the operation managed to intercept 24 guns.

He said part of the operation was the closure of Canada's biggest methamphetamine lab in the city's west end in April.

In Thursday's raids, police seized 130 pounds of meth, 400,000 Ecstasy pills, 6.6 pounds of cocaine, 132 pounds of marijuana and 50,000 Viagra pills, police said.

Toronto intelligence Staff-Inspector Greg Getty said drugs were shipped to the United States for cash, firearms and cocaine.