Lab equipment and fentanyl is shown in evidence bags during an RCMP news conference in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, April 10, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

By The Canadian Press

Multi-agency effort led to seizure of large amounts of fentanyl, other drugs: RCMP

Dec 2, 2025 | 10:56 AM

OTTAWA — The RCMP said Tuesday it teamed up with other law enforcement agencies to seize 386 kilograms of fentanyl and significant amounts of other illicit drugs over a five-month period.

The Mounties said the effort, which ran from late May through the end of October, brought together agencies across Canada to focus on fentanyl traffickers, production labs, distribution networks and those who finance the drug trade.

Those actions led to thousands of arrests and charges — including the arrests of 217 people for trafficking fentanyl while on bail, the national police force said.

The enforcement efforts, which involved more than 100 agencies across Canada, also resulted in the seizure of about 1,200 kilograms of other opioids and 270 kilograms of precursor chemicals used to make drugs, the RCMP said.

Agencies also seized nearly 6,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,700 kilograms of methamphetamine and more than $13 million in cash, the force said.

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In additional to the various police forces, the effort drew on the expertise of multiple agencies, including the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

“Dismantling the financial infrastructure of organized crime is critical,” said Bonnie Ferguson, an RCMP assistant commissioner.

“We’re seeing transnational organized crime groups collaborating like they never have before.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House has repeatedly expressed concern about the southbound flow of deadly fentanyl into the United States — criticism it has used to justify tariffs against Canada.

Ottawa has said repeatedly that Canada accounts for a tiny fraction of the fentanyl illegally entering the United States.

During a media briefing Tuesday on the five-month enforcement effort, authorities said almost all of the fentanyl produced in Canada is sold domestically, not internationally.

Ferguson said the focus on fentanyl expanded “our domestic intelligence picture, and did confirm that it is a domestic issue for us.”

Dan Anson, director general of the intelligence and investigations directorate at the Canada Border Services Agency, said the organization continues to see “very small amounts of personal-use fentanyl moving back and forth, southbound and northbound.”

“We continue to not be an exporter of fentanyl,” he said. “We have a domestic issue.”

Criminal Intelligence Service Canada director general Ken Lamontagne agreed the fentanyl manufactured in Canada is intended for sale within the country.

“It’s certainly not for an export-based market when it comes to fentanyl,” he told the briefing. “So it really is a domestic issue for us, and that’s where the focus really has to be.”

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Tuesday he has pointed out to his American counterparts that neither Canada nor the United States is a source of fentanyl crossing the 49th parallel.

“We have very good conversations and we have ongoing dialogue, and every opportunity we have we convey that,” he said after a cabinet meeting.

Ferguson said during the briefing that although the months-long effort has wrapped up, the collective fight against fentanyl will transition to “a formalized structure” to focus on the drug and other synthetic opioids across Canada.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2025.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press