After a large cross border investigation, ten people are facing 111 charges in relation to gun smuggling operations.
Project KIRBY was led by the OPP in conjunction with the Windsor Police Service, London Police Service, the Canadian Border Service Agency and US Homeland Security.
The 12 month investigation led to eight search warrants being executed in Windsor, Essex County and London last month. A total of seven hand guns and a machine gun were seized along with drug paraphernalia, $67,000 in Canadian currency and $10,500 in American currency and three vehicles.
Project Manager OPP Detective-Inspector James Smyth says even though only eight weapons were seized, this is significant because of the people associated with the firearms.
"These people are in the business of shopping for specific guns for organized crime groups. These are the people that if you want a gun in the GTA or southwestern Ontario and you have the right connections, you'll go to these people to get them," says Smyth.
Smyth says they used undercover officers posing as members of organized crime to identify these individuals.
"We were trying to find that happy medium between determining that they were in fact in an ongoing business versus a one-off and stopping it before someone got hurt," says Smyth.
One person is still at large in relation to the investigation and is known to frequent Windsor and the Toronto area. Philip Nkrumah, who also goes by the street name of Bonus, is still wanted and facing seven charges.
Philip Nkrumah wanted in connection with Project KIRBY (Provided by OPP)
Of the nine people arrested six reside in Windsor, one is from Lakeshore, one is from London and the other is from Detroit, MI. For a list of their names and a full list of charges click here.
