Operation Rhino Yields $6 Million Illicit Cannabis Bust in Newfoundland

Article by Danielle Edwards, Growth Op

Almost a year after it was launched, Operation Rhino — the brainchild of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) Drug Investigation Unit — resulted in the seizure of $6 million in illicit cannabis and other substances and equipment in St. John’s.

During a press conference on July 24, police displayed the yield of their drug bust which also included shatter, MDMA, LSD, magic mushrooms, hash,and edibles found in three homes on the Avalon Peninsula, VOCM News Now reported.

Supt. Tom Warren said the bust was national in its scale, and said the group behind the illicit activities a sophisticated organization, CBC reports.

“The organized crime group that we’re dealing with, I would suggest, are quite complex,” Warren said. “They have associates not just from our province, but across Canada.”

The seizure also revealed a pill press, the first ever located in the province. The machine is suspected to have been purchased on the dark web and is used to create non-pharmaceutical grade pills on a mass scale at a rate of 20,000 pills an hour. Warren said the pills posed a threat to drug users in Newfoundland and Labrador because of possible contamination with lethal substances like fentanyl.

Authorities also found more than $180,000 in cash, brass knuckles, body armour, two vehicles and six firearms, including automatic rifles and shotguns.

Operation Rhino launched in response to uptick in drug activity

Operation Rhino got its start in September 2019 in response to concerns about various drug activities, one of which was the production and sale of non-pharmaceutical grade pills.

Warren said it was a rise in drug activity that initially piqued the interest of authorities in the province.

“Investigators believed there to be an enterprise involving the mass production of non-pharmaceutical-grade pills operating within our community,” Warren said.

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