Fourteen people from across Canada, including 10 from Winnipeg, are facing numerous drug and gun-related charges after RCMP, Winnipeg police and Brandon police conducted a 15-month-long investigation dubbed Project Distress. Police said Thursday the investigation targeted high-level drug trafficking and organized crime activities in Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Project Distress was launched in October 2013 and officers seized more than six kilograms of cocaine, eight kilograms of methamphetamine, quantities of dilaudid, steroids, oxycodone, Percocet and marijuana. More than $70,000 in cash was also confiscated, along with 17 long-barreled guns, ammunition and handguns. Investigators wiretapped cellphones and tapped into other social media outlets to mount their case before the arrests on Dec. 10, 2014. Five houses in Winnipeg where searched, another in the RM of MacDonald and one in Port Coquitlam, B.C. Among the 14 arrested is former Transcona city councillor candidate Raymond Ulasy, who faces two firearms trafficking charges. Police announced on Dec. 19 that another of the suspects, Christopher Gordon, had turned himself in. Another suspect, Sean Demchuk, was arrested in Hamilton, Ont. on Dec. 19.
