York Regional Police charged 26 people and seized $5 million worth of drugs and firearms following a year-long investigation into a massive drug and gun trafficking operation in the GTA.

The bust, dubbed Project Hammer, began as an investigation into street-level drug and gun trafficking in January 2020. 

But the operation slowly grew in scope, with the Toronto Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police eventually joining forces with YRP to help bring down the complex multi-level organization. 

Guns ✅
Drugs ✅
Money✅

After a year-long investigation into a complex crime group, @YRP and our friends at @TorontoPolice and @OPP dropped the hammer on these dangerous gun and drug traffickers. #HammerTime #ProjectHammer pic.twitter.com/sYeXGUwk4k

— York Regional Police (@YRP) March 25, 2021

In the end, police executed 27 search warrants across the GTA on March 18, with a total of 35 search warrants executed throughout the investigation and 26 people facing charges as a result.

Officers seized 12 guns during these searches, as well as varying amounts of cocaine, cannabis, cannabis edibles, hash, methamphetamine, ketamine, psilocybin, fentanyl, xanax, oxycodone, MDMA, liquid codeine, GHB, LSD, adderall and 18,220 pills that have yet to be identified.

Can't touch this?#HammerTime #ProjectHammerhttps://t.co/A9zOkWNoZc pic.twitter.com/0qli9URvLH

— York Regional Police (@YRP) March 25, 2021

The Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario also supported this York Regional Police investigation through funding provided by the Ontario government.

"Violence always follows organized crime. If there is illicit income, there will be violence to protect that income," reads a news release from police. 

"York Regional Police and our enforcement partners will not cease our efforts to deter, dismantle and disrupt the organized crime groups involved in these illegal activities, which bring criminality and the risk of violence to all our communities."