A home invasion in Vaughan on Christmas Eve led York Regional Police to arrest a large network of criminals, while also seizing more than $14 million worth of illegal drugs.
On Tuesday morning, police released details of Project Skyfall, which began after a home invasion in 2023 that saw a trio of thieves enter a house near Forest Drive and Harmonia Crescent during the holiday season.
“Three masked suspects forced entry into the home, held the occupants at gunpoint and assaulted them while making demands for money,” York police said in a release.
As they were in the home, a woman called 911, allowing officers reached the scene before the robbers had left. The two sides clashed, with an officer firing several shots at the bandits, according to police.
They say officers were able to arrest one of the suspects, and were able to recover a loaded weapon at the scene.
This launched a further investigation, which included officers from Peel and Toronto, and led to the arrest of 17 people from across the GTA.
Two of those people, a 34-year-old man from Brampton and 33-year-old woman from Orangeville, have been charged with unauthorized use of a computer.
On Tuesday morning, Det.-Sgt. Ryan Boulay told reporters that one person was working with MTO, and that a person arrested in connection to the case no longer had computer access.
A police spokesperson told Global News that they were unable to provide any information as to how MTO computers were being accessed in connection to the case.
“That information will be directly part of the investigation and would be deemed evidentiary,” Const. James Dickson told Global News in an email “We are unable to speak to that while its before the courts.”
Police say they also prevented several other home invasions from taking place that were in the works.
“We believe that three potential home invasions are armed, robberies were going to occur that were disrupted, and that as a result of the ongoing investigation that spanned across the last roughly 12 months,” Boulay said.
A few of the men who were arrested in connection with Project Skyfall were from Saskatchewan while police allege that the vehicle that was used in the Christmas Eve hime invasion came from Calgary.
“That black sedan had been obtained during an armed carjacking in Calgary shortly before our home invasion in Vaughan,” Boulay said. “ One of the offenders that’s been arrested, it’s alleged that he removed a GPS ankle bracelet. He was on bail conditions out west and he ended up in the GTA.”
Out of the trio from Saskatchewan, there were 14 people arrested from various locales all across the GTA including Markham, Pickering, Brampton, Toronto, Mississauga and Orangeville.
As a group, they will be facing 85 charges in connection to Project Skyfall with many of those being drug or weapon charges.
Officers say they ended up executing 48 search warrants where they recovered two handguns, a shotgun and $14.4 million in drugs including cocaine, ketamine, methamphetamine, and hundreds of bottles of pills which were to be sold as Oxycodone.
“This includes roughly 300,000 tablets which were manufactured for the purposes of trafficking,” according to Deputy Chief Alvaro Almeida.
He said that six of the people who were arrested were out on bail or release before the arrests including one who was on parole for armed robbery and discharging a gun.