Waterloo Regional Police have seized over 200 firearms as a part of a weapons investigation that started in Waterloo.
Police mentioned Direct Motion Response Group (DART) officers stopped a car for a visitors violation Friday night time round 7:20 p.m. within the space of Weber Road North and Bridgeport Highway East.
“The DART officers have been on proactive patrol as a part of Protected Semester, a yearly challenge to advertise the protection and wellbeing of college and faculty college students within the area,” police informed Ontario Chronicle in an e-mail.
Based on police, through the visitors cease officers seen firearms and ammunition contained in the car.
“Officers approached the car and as they approached, they noticed a number of rounds of ammunition scattered all through the car in addition to the barrel of a firearm was pointing within the route of the officers that was positioned within the entrance seat of the car,” mentioned Const. Brad Hickey of Waterloo Regional Police.
The motive force, a 39-year-old man from Guelph, was arrested and charged with careless use of a firearms and transport firearm or restricted weapon. 17 firearms have been seized from the car.
A big amount of ammunition, magazines, and firearm elements have been additionally seized on the residence in Guelph on Sept. 7, 2024. (WRPS)
“Are they on the market? Is he a firearms trafficker? Or is he only a gun proprietor that desires to maneuver them to a different location and safely retailer them? I imply, there’s every kind of choices there,” mentioned Ontario Chronicle Public Security Analyst, Chris Lewis.
As a part of the continued investigation, police accomplished a search warrant at a house on Victoria Highway North in Guelph Saturday.
“Investigators seized 156 improperly stored firearms and an additional 60 firearms under public safety provisions of the Criminal Code. A large quantity of ammunition, magazines, and firearm parts were also seized,” police mentioned in a media launch Sunday.
Further firearms storage and dealing with charges are pending, police mentioned.
“It will seem by the fees which were laid to a few of them that maybe the restricted weapons have been by no means correctly registered, so there’s a few totally different violations that will have occured right here,” mentioned Lewis. “However anybody that will personal 200 weapons, I imply that type of scares me in itself. It simply does not make sense to the typical gun proprietor.”
“The investigation is ongoing and we’re encouraging anybody, any members of the general public who’ve any info to please contact police or Crime Stoppers,” added Hickey.
– With reporting by Krista Sharpe
