Smuggling investigation leads to arrest of Oshawa man on weapons and drug chargeas

A four-month investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) into weapons smuggling has led to the arrest of an Oshawa man on 18 smuggling, drugs and importation charges.

The agency began the investigation in early May after officers stopped multiple attempts at smuggling prohibited firearms parts into Canada. On September 4, the Ontario Firearms Smuggling Enforcement Team – a group of criminal investigators, intelligence analysts, and intelligence officers tasked with investigating firearms smuggling throughout the province – executed search warrants at two homes in Oshawa with the assistance of Durham Police’s Tactical Support Unit.

Collaboration between Canada and US officials also contributed to the success of the operation, the CBSA declared.

Evidence seized during the execution of the search warrants includes several overcapacity magazines, magazine catch and release devices, 10 round magazines, a suppressor, a firearm conversion kit, a weapon mounted flashlight, 46 rounds of ammunition, multiple cell phones, SIM cards, a computer and more than $23,800 in Canadian funds.

Equipment that formed a clandestine narcotics lab, such as pill and drug brick presses, baggies, weight scales, vacuum sealers, and baking soda were also discovered, along with MDMA, cocaine, oxycodone, methamphetamine, traces of fentanyl, and various illicit drug additives.

Cameron Williams, 24, has been charged with four counts of smuggling prohibited devices, four counts of importation of prohibited devices, three other smuggling offences, four counts of possession of prohibited devices, one count of possession of stolen property, and two drug offences.

Williams was placed in house arrest with his next scheduled court appearance is October 24.