The operation, dubbed Project Siphon, began in September 2019 and ended with the laying of more than 800 charges and seizure of 34 firearms.
“This project has included multiple homicides where bullets flew with shocking disregard for anyone, including innocent children who have been caught in the crossfire,” Peel Region police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said at an online news conference Wednesday.
Some of the guns seized were modified to be fully automatic, high-capacity magazines.
Also seized were street drugs including cocaine and fentanyl with a value of almost $2 million and $1 million in Canadian currency, police said.
The operation centred on an organization called the New Money So Sick Gang, which police allege ran an illegal marijuana delivery service out of Mississauga and Brampton and protected its turf with murder.
The charges include murder, human trafficking and money laundering.
Det. Sgt. Chad Lines said that the gang is Peel-based, with reach into other communities.
“The gang conflict is constant,” Lines said.
The news conference was told the gang was tied to the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jonathan Davis on Sept. 14, 2019.
Davis, a Grade 12 student at Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School, was outside a housing complex on Darcel Avenue, when an estimated 142 bullets were fired from seven guns in an ambush.
“Jonathan was not involved with any gang crime and was an innocent victim who had found himself caught in the middle of the gunfire,” Supt. Martin Ottaway said. “We believe that New Money So Sick Gang members attended the apartment building to retaliate in an ongoing gang conflict.”
Five others, including a 13-year-old girl, were injured.
The rival gang was shooting a rap video at the time of the gunfire, police said.
“Two vehicles drove into the apartment complex and seven suspects exited the vehicles armed with firearms,” Supt. Martin Ottaway said. “The suspects opened fire.”
Jahvon Valdez, 21, of Brampton, and Safeer Ahmad, 19, of Mississauga, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with Davis’s death.
Police also connected the gang to the Oct. 22, 2019 shooting death of 28-year-old Giovanni Delahaye, who was killed while inside a car stopped at a red light near Hwy. 410 and Derry Road East in Mississauga.
Other shootings police connected to the gang this year include:
On Aug. 3, 25-year-old Abdifatah Salah was shot dead at a Mississauga townhouse complex on Huntington Ridge Drive, near Mavis Road and Eglinton Avenue West.
“Investigation has revealed that the victim was a frequent customer of Sickspensary, which is an illegal mobile cannabis operation, operating in the region of Peel by New Money So Sick gang members,” Ottaway said.
“It is the investigators’ belief that the victim’s association with Sickspensary was a factor in his murder.”
On the afternoon of Aug. 31, members of the gang went to a Brampton cemetery in the Bovaird Drive and Chinguacousy Road area to celebrate a birthday when a shooting broke out.
Some 70 shots were fired and at least three people were injured in that attack.
On Oct. 29, at the intersection of Larkin Avenue and Ballard Drive, two men wearing balaclavas opened fire at a car and then fled in a black Lexus SUV with tinted windows and silver rims. There were no reported injuries.
The same vehicle was used in the fatal shootings of Davis and Delahaye, police said.
Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich said that social development initiatives are also needed to combat gang violence. He also noted that 90 per cent of firearms seized come from outside of the country.
“It’s a complex issue with a lot of different layers,” Milinovich said. “ . . . Enforcement isn’t enough.”
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