New Hamburg man, charged in $200M cocaine bust

NEW HAMBURG - Police have made more arrests after dismantling a $200-million, international operation to smuggle cocaine into the country. One of three men arrested is from New Hamburg.

New arrests were made this week after border service officers seized more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in Saint John, N.B.,in January 2022. The drugs were found hidden in industrial machinery inside a shipping container sent by sea from Central America.

The cocaine, with an estimated street value of $198 million, was the largest amount of cocaine seized from a marine shipping container in Atlantic Canada in three decades.

The container was imported by a Brantford resident.

Police this week secured search warrants for Brantford and for New Hamburg. A New Hamburg man, 42, faces charges including unlawfully importing cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine.

Two Brantford men, aged 35 and 47, face the same charges. One of the Brantford men was previously charged last January with drug offences in the same investigation.

The investigation involved agencies including the Kitchener RCMP detachment, the Canadian Border Service Agency, Brantford Police, and a national centre for financial transactions. It began in 2021.

The accused are to appear in court in Brantford Jan. 19 and Jan. 20.

The RCMP called the latest arrests a significant financial setback to the gangs and organized crime that victimize Canadians by trafficking in these harmful narcotics."