The RCMP in 2024 and 2025 | Attack organized crime everywhere and in every way

Targeting dirty money launderers serving several criminal organizations at the same time, getting involved in international investigations in which Quebecers or Canadians are targeted, helping local police forces on the trail of gang members who move from increasingly across Canada, reduce imports of fentanyl and the production of synthetic drugs, annihilate organized crime groups by attacking their assets; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intends to continue next year what it started in 2024. But to make its task easier, it believes that major legislative changes are necessary.

“The RCMP is making every effort against organized crime,” says Marie-Ève ​​Lavallée, head of investigations for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), eastern region (Quebec and Maritimes).

The superintendent recalls that in 2024, her division contributed to three international investigations.

The Dead Hand investigation was launched by the FBI, after which Roberto Scoppa, brother of the late Montreal mafia clan leaders Andrew and Salvatore Scoppa, was arrested.

The Giant Slalom investigation was launched by the FBI and Mexican police against a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, Ryan Wedding, who was recycled into the importation of cocaine. The latter is still wanted by the police and a reward of US$50,000 is offered for any information leading to his arrest.

Finally, the Cyborg investigation was carried out in collaboration with European and Australian police against a designer of an encrypted communications platform used by criminals.

“The plots that were done here before are now being done elsewhere, so we have to be more versatile and use the strengths of all our units as well as those of international partners, who, very often, have information that we do not have. no access,” adds his deputy and boss of the Joint Organized Crime Investigation Unit (UMÉCO), Inspector Dominic Duchesneau.

“This is what we are going to focus on a lot in 2025, because we know that it bears fruit on both sides of the border,” he adds.

Unity is strength

Organized crime on Indigenous territory will also be a priority for the RCMP in 2025.

Imports and exports of fentanyl, which are also a concern of the Trump administration in the United States, and the fight against synthetic drugs, as well.

In 2024, the RCMP dismantled at least three clandestine synthetic drug production laboratories in Quebec, including one in Drummondville. This investigation is still ongoing and also involves international police forces.

Superintendent Marie-Ève ​​Lavallée also recalls the seizure in 2024 of 3.2 kg of ketamine, the discovery, by members of the airport investigations division, of 62 kg of cocaine hidden in a grand piano and the dismantling, by the detachment from Quebec, of a network of cocaine importers and distributors allegedly led by the late kingpin Raymond Desfossés.

Also on the hunt for the federal police in 2024 are the arrest of a possible importer of illegal firearms in Montreal and the arrest of Quebecers in Peru suspected of cocaine trafficking.

As Montreal street gang members increasingly travel to other Canadian provinces, the RCMP has assisted the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) by monitoring suspects in Western Canada suspected of murders and arrested by the SPVM as part of a major investigation called Mécano on December 11.

“This collaboration is very important between police forces if we want to be successful and protect citizens. We will turn to this a lot in 2025, because this is how we cause the most damage,” warns Mr. Duchesneau.

Beware of professional launderers

2024 was also marked by a major investigation against a Montreal mafia clan, that of the Lopezes, and in which a redefined unit of the RCMP could – as the rest will tell us – have made a sensational entrance.

This unit, the Anti-Money Laundering Investigation Team (AET) – formerly the Joint Proceeds of Crime Unit – played an important role in this investigation called Chrome. From the start, six buildings belonging to the Lopez family were blocked, but the full contribution of the EEBA will be known when the arrests and indictments come.

But in addition to assisting the RCMP investigation units, the team, which has around forty members, has given itself another mandate in 2025: to attack, throughout Quebec, Canada and elsewhere, “professional money launderers.” » who offer their services, whether in cryptocurrency or other currencies, to more than one criminal organization, in return for a commission, such as networks based in Montreal and Toronto dismantled in 2019, at the end of a investigation called Collector.

The judicial system criticized

The fact remains that fighting against organized criminals, who always learn more about police methods each time evidence is filed in court and who adapt, is increasingly difficult, deplore police forces, including the RCMP. .

In Chrome, a dozen individuals were searched in March 2024.

Nine months later, around fifteen seized cell phones have still not been opened and searched by UMÉCO investigators because they are the subject of legal proceedings (Lavallée-type requests).

These aim to protect privileged information that the devices may contain and to establish protocols, so that the RCMP can then extract the data that is not sensitive and use what is relevant to its investigation.

Once the phones can be opened, investigators will have to analyze them, extract incriminating exchanges, identify people using pseudonyms and determine which individuals are hiding behind each of the devices.

In short, it is practically a second investigation that will begin, which will result in the accumulation of new evidence and will further delay its disclosure and indictments.

The police officer is campaigning for legislative changes, particularly in terms of computer seizures, cryptocurrency and partnership with foreign law enforcement, to facilitate the work of the police who will thus be able to assign more police officers to investigations. and less disclosure, and avoid “heartbreaking choices” about which criminals to target.

“The judicial system is not adapted to complex investigations in the fight against organized crime. I don’t want to embellish the situation and I don’t want to be alarmist either; the police are dedicated and the population is safe. But could we do more? I dare to hope that yes, if we had different tools in terms of legislation,” he concludes.

To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.