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Four Quebec residents are facing drug trafficking charges after they exported carfentanil to the US through dark web markets.
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During the bust, police confiscated 600,000 pills, a loaded firearm, and 81 liters of a very harmful liquid opioid which public health authorities recently warned about.
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This bust is a product of a joint investigation by the Quebec cybercrime unit, US Customs & Border Protection and US Homeland Security.
On Wednesday Police arrested some individuals who allegedly ran a drug ring from the suburbs located south of Montreal. Officers believe that this group used the dark web to ship a very potent synthetic opioid called carfentanil to US customers.
Cops from the Surete du Quebec’s cybercrime squad teamed up with US Homeland Security and Customs & Border Protection. They kicked off the whole investigation in January 2025.
Details of the Drug Ring Raid
Following a thorough investigation, the police secured a search warrant last December. They raided the criminals’ hideout and collected substantial evidence to pin the suspects down.
Officers seized a lot of the inventory the traffickers used for their operation. Among them were 600,000 tablets from different locations, including MDMA, meth, benzodiazepines, and metonitazene, a synthetic opioid.
That’s not all; they found cannabis, cocaine, and equipment the officers tagged ‘instruments used for trafficking on the dark web.’ In addition, the raid uncovered a loaded 9 mm firearm, lots of 9 mm cartridges, and brass knuckles.
Fake Cough Syrup Was Part of Police Seizure During the Bust
One thing that stood out from the things the investigators seized is 81 litres of a liquid substance called protonitazene. This chemical had featured as part of the subject of a public health alert earlier this month.
On February 9, the Montreal Public Health office warned residents about this exact substance. They had also found out that someone was selling fake cough medicine as if it were real.
Public health officials warned that anyone consuming it could suffer from adverse effects due to overdosing on the substance.
According to the police, the liquid protonitazene they seized matches the dangerous substance the alert described.
Of the four suspects, two, Geneva Fournier from Châteauguay and Darren McAlpine from Delson, are now in custody. The charges against them are pretty serious.
Cheyanne Buchanan-Dennis and Wanya Nathan are the other two suspects; both are facing the same charges and are both from Sainte-Catherine.
All four suspects are charged with owning a firearm, dealing in drugs, and having a firearm to deal with.
Similar Dark Web Drug Busts
The arrests have been a consistent trend as law authorities in both Canada and America increase their efforts to capture criminals who are using the dark web as a means to sell and buy drugs.
As part of this effort, last year the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) successfully dismantled one of the largest drug operations on the dark web in Canada.
The investigation started after authorities in Germany dismantled one drug marketplace and tipped off the RCMP. It led to seven arrests and seizure of 75kg of varying narcotics, MDMA, meth, heroin, and cocaine inclusive. They even confiscated 10,000 pills and ketamine as well.
This particular drug ring used ‘RoadRunna’ branded packaging and distributed approximately 400 packages every week around Canada. Investigators referred to it as a ‘sophisticated’ criminal enterprise.
In another sting, US authorities convicted Arden McCann, a Canadian man, around June last year. Mr. McCann received a 30-year jail sentence in Atlanta. Court records showed McCann was one of the largest dark web drug vendors under monikers like ‘DRXanax.’ He imported millions of Xanax pills into the United States.
During investigations, officers found that McCann made over $10 million in revenue from his drug sales across 49 states. When authorities in Canada first arrested him in 2015, they found about two million fake pills, five pill presses, 15 firearms, ballistic vests, and more than $200,000 in cash in his place.
The RCMP helped with the investigation. According to RCMP Superintendent Marie Eve Lavallée, the presence of illegal opioids and fentanyl is a high priority. It is the RCMP’s goal to assist international partners in catching and prosecute offenders.
But as authorities focus on drug trafficking, they must also contend with the parallel crisis of data breaches, like the Illinois Human Services exposure of 700,000 records on the dark web, proving that the fight against dark web crime requires a multi-front approach that addresses both physical and digital harms.
The authorities are requesting anyone with information about drug and weapon trafficking to contact the SQ’s Criminal Information Centre by calling 1-800-659-4264.
