Toronto Police seize 7 guns, drugs, over $100Gs in 'Project Compound' sting

Toronto Police say the alleged ringleader of a group suspected in shootings in Thorncliffe Park since 2019 is only 19 years old.

The 11 men face a combined 95 charges after the Gun and Gang Task Force and Centralized Shooting Response Teams executed warrants in nine Toronto and three Cambridge addresses on Sept. 3 as part of “Project Compound,” an eight-month-long sting.

Investigators seized seven guns, drugs and over $100,000 in cash.

This will create safer communities, police said.

“It’s not just several individuals that are off the streets,” said Staff-Supt. Peter Code during a press conference Wednesday.

“We believe strongly (these people) are prolific in relation to criminal activity, that use firearms, that have access to firearms on a regular basis.”

Code said there have been 350 shootings in Toronto between Jan. 1 and Wednesday morning — including a scene in south Etobicoke early Tuesday after a gender reveal party in an alleged boozecan — a spike of 40 more in the same period last year.

Of those 350 shootings, 168 people across the city have been struck by bullets — slightly down from 170 the same time last year by only two.

“What those statistics do not speak to, is the trauma and fear, the mental and physical injury these shootings actually push to all of our community,” said Code.

“Not just the person that’s been hit, but people that were at at the event, members of their family, friends, members of their neighbourhood and entire communities.”

Besides firearms and cash, investigators seized a half-kilo of cocaine, 18 pounds of marijuana, MDMA and 65 grams of fentanyl.

Of the seven guns recovered, five are prohibited firearms, said Det.-Sgt. Richard Harris.

Police are still trying to determine their origin and how people got them into the country.

“It’s alleged that this group purposefully set out to commit violent acts against targeted individuals for the sole purpose of monetary gain and retribution,” said Det.-Sgt. Richard Harris. “The intended victims were targeted individuals.”

Salman Jogiyat, 19, of Toronto, faces the highest number of charges at 43, including two counts of attempted murder, five counts of instruct for the benefit of a criminal organization, four counts of participating in a criminal organization, as well as robbery, possession, trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder, firearm and break-and-enter offences.

“His age, yes, is of concern and it is alleged that he was in fact, the leader of this group,” said Harris.

Supt. Steve Watts, who leads the Organized Crime Enforcement Unit, said the Integrated Gang Prevention Task Force ran a series of town hall meetings last year and earlier in 2020 to try to find proactive solutions to gun violence, including a program for members to exit gangs.

“There’s much greater engagement, integrating community social agencies into the solution,” he said. “This not just a police problem. This is a societal phenomenon.”

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