International crime group exposed in Toronto

A nine-month investigation culminated early Tuesday morning as police conducted several raids across Ontario, arresting 78 people and exposing the “tentacles” of a Jamaican criminal organization known as the Shower Posse.

More than 1,000 police officers fanned out across the GTA and Ottawa early Tuesday morning as they executed 105 simultaneous, pre-dawn searches. The raids yielded at least 78 arrests, as well as $30,000 cash, $10,500 in casino cheques, 19 firearms, diamonds, cocaine, marijuana, hashish oil, vehicles and more than 10,000 ecstasy pills.

The police investigation, dubbed Project Corral, was instigated in August 2009 as a response to a spike of violence in northwest Toronto. The investigation was initially aimed at two street-level gangs — the Falstaff Crips and the Five Point Generals — but police were eventually led to an umbrella organization called the Shower Posse, a Jamaican criminal organization police described as an “international organized crime group that has tentacles into this street-level group ... and is profiting from their criminal activities.”

The Shower Posse also has links overseas and Project Corral has led to the seizure of cocaine coming into Toronto from Panama and the United States, said Staff Insp. Mike Earl.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/804134--international-crime-group-exposed-in-toronto?bn=1

Who is behind the curtain?