Police busted an organized crime group alleged to have stolen over a million dollars’ worth of merchandise from Shoppers Drug Marts
Twenty-one people from Hamilton and the GTA have been arrested
An organized crime group alleged to have stolen over a million dollars’ worth of merchandise from Shoppers Drug Mart locations across Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia has been busted, according to Hamilton police.
Images of stolen merchandise published by police show a large stash of day-to-day items including lipsticks, shaving creams, razor blades, over-the-counter allergy medication and toothbrushes. The accused individuals are said to have gone on stealing sprees, then taken the stolen merchandise to a contact in Mississauga, who transported it to a liquidation warehouse in Brampton. From there, the merchandise was sold to the public.
Related: Amazon employees in Ajax have been accused of stealing $2 million worth of merchandise
“This was not a small operation,” Peel’s deputy police chief, Marc Andrews, said at a press conference. “It was a sophisticated distribution network, and Peel Region served as a major hub of its activities.”
Twenty-one people from Hamilton and the GTA were arrested this week in connection to the investigation, which police have dubbed Project Sommes. Those arrested range in age from 15 to 75 years old.
Police say the group likely carried out thousands of thefts dating back to February 2024.
Related: The Shoppers Drug Mart at Bloor and Bedford has the most unhinged social media account in the city
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
