THUNDER BAY — Nishnawbe Aski Police Service officers, with Ontario Provincial Police assistance, seized Oxycodone pills with an estimated street value of nearly $135,000 after searching a home on Crown Street last week and charged a 72-year-old local man with drug trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime.
Police executed the warrant on October 22 at a residential address in the 100-block of Crown Street. Investigators said the search turned up the pills, cash, and paraphernalia consistent with trafficking. The 72-year-old faces the two charges. The case remains before the courts, and the amounts and values cited by police are still subject to further examination.
The seizure is one of the larger ones reported in the city in recent months. Oxycodone has circulated through the region for years, often alongside other opioids, and police and health officials have repeatedly noted that the street supply is not confined to large urban centres. Thunder Bay has seen a steady sequence of trafficking investigations involving both local residents and people moving product through the city from elsewhere in the province and beyond.
NAPS handles policing in many of the First Nation communities across the northwest, and joint operations with the OPP on cases that cross municipal boundaries are common. Crown Street sits inside the city limits, but the investigation drew on both services. No further details on the quantity of pills recovered or the exact cash amount have been released beyond the street-value estimate.
The charges come at a time when municipal councils across the region are still dealing with the ordinary costs of policing, emergency response, and the downstream effects of drug trafficking on housing, health services, and court backlogs. A single large seizure does not change those numbers, but it does remove a quantity of pills that would otherwise have moved through the local market.
The 72-year-old is scheduled to appear in court. Police have not said whether additional charges or additional suspects are expected. The investigation remains open.
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