Ontario Crime Stoppers organizations offering reward aimed at fentanyl

In an effort to get the deadly opioid fentanyl off the streets, certain Crime Stoppers organizations in Ontario are offering a $1,000 bounty for information that leads to seizure of illicit forms of the drug.

Const. Dana Edwards says Durham Regional Crime Stoppers began the program on Wednesday and is offering the reward to anyone whose tips directly result in the seizure of illegal fentanyl, or its derivatives, that is being trafficked.

Edwards says the program, which will run through the end of April, will also pay the reward for information leading to the arrest of fentanyl traffickers.

It’s not the first time Crime Stoppers in Ontario has offered a reward to stem the spread of fentanyl — Near North Crime Stoppers in North Bay, Ont., ran a similar campaign late last year and Simcoe-Dufferin-Muskoka Crime Stoppers, in the Barrie, Ont., area is in the middle of a two-month reward program.

Fentanyl — a drug prescribed for chronic pain management — is roughly 100 times more potent than morphine and about 40 times stronger than heroin. It produces a drug high but also depresses the body’s rate of respiration, which can cause breathing to stop — a dose of just two milligrams of pure fentanyl can be lethal.

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Jean Lemieux of Near North Crime Stoppers says they consider a $1,000 fentanyl reward that was offered in November and December a success. Lemieux says they received about two dozen tips and paid out two rewards.

“The seizures were smaller in nature,” Lemieux said Wednesday. “It had an impact on the community.”

The North Bay police street crime unit approached Crime Stoppers because fentanyl was gaining in popularity in the area and the board decided to offer a limited-time reward, he said.

“It was very successful,” Lemieux said.

In Durham region, east of Toronto, Edwards said the increased prevalence of fentanyl prompted them to try the reward program.

“In 2016, we did have nine deaths that were confirmed related to fentanyl overdoses,” she said. “It’s being used in a lot of other drugs and people aren’t aware that it’s in there and it’s turned out to be a real concern for police as well as members of the public.”

Edwards said they get a lot of drug-related tips but they’re hoping the project “encourages people to call us and provide that information for who is trafficking the narcotic.”

Barrie Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood has said the Simcoe-Dufferin-Muskoka Crime Stoppers initiative was designed as “another tool to combat the current fentanyl and opioid epidemic.”

Last week, Ontario Provincial Police announced the seizure of thousands of fentanyl-laced pills they described as “potential doses of death” and nearly two dozen guns along with the arrests of  18 people in an international investigation into organized crime.

“By dismantling a criminal operation of this magnitude, we’ve literally prevented more than 11,000 doses of death of fentanyl and illegal guns from killing people in our communities,” OPP Deputy Commissioner Rick Barnum said at the time.

“We have audio recordings of drug traffickers who callously admitted that the enormous profits that can be made from fentanyl far outweighs the potential overdose deaths that can come about as a result of them dealing these drugs.”

Peter Cameron, The Canadian Press