Authorities say they have taken apart an organized crime group, arresting ten people and laying over 100 charges as a result of a year-long investigation.

The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team, with help from the Calgary Police Service, RCMP, Public Prosecution Services Canada, RCMP Vernon, RCMP Sicamous, Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit British Columbia, Canada Border Services Agency, Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, began an investigation in November 2015 and wrapped up work with the arrest of 40-year-old Timothy Varga on November 21, 2016.

ALERT says Varga was the prime figure in a crime ring that extended from Alberta to B.C., with ties to Manitoba.

“He actually turned himself in with a lawyer here at Westwinds CPS building,” said Staff Sgt. Barry McCurdy of the RCMP. “The group that we dealt with were basically selling drugs at the street level in the city of Calgary. We worked at that level right up to Timothy Varga as the leader of that group.”

Varga has been charged with:

  • Instructing a criminal organization
  • Committing offences for a criminal organization
  • Recruiting members for a criminal organization
  • Conspiring to commit an indictable offence
  • Trafficking in Cocaine (x 2)
  • Possession of property obtained by crime
  • Six firearms charges

“Timothy Varga was the main target of our investigation from the beginning and to be able to gather enough evidence to charge him with the organized crime charges is significant, I believe,” said McCurdy.

Police also arrested nine associates, many of whom faced charges in connection with a bust earlier this year.

During the operation, police executed a number of search warrants throughout Calgary and B.C.’s Okanagan Region that resulted in the seizure of:

  • A stolen handgun
  • 147 grams of cocaine
  • 26 grams of heroin
  • 106 grams of methamphetamine
  • 910 morphine pills
  • six grams of hash oil
  • 1.2 kilograms of ketamine
  • 14 trazodone pills
  • 12 grams of psilocybin
  • 14 rounds of ammunition
  • Various stolen property
  • $10,500 cash proceeds of crime

ALERT has charged the following people with multiple drug and firearms offences:

  • Andrew McGuire, 41
  • Antonio Chavez, 23
  • Jason Hamilton, 40
  • Larissa Cowan, 25 (Update: November 29, 2018 – Charge was stayed then dropped)
  • Jared Kennedy, 32
  • Spencer Allan-Elliott, 26
  • Corey DeBakker, 19
  • Alex Wawia, 40
  • Justine Brind-Suchar, 26

Police have arrested all of the suspects except for Andrew McGuire who is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant and is believed to be in the Calgary area.

Anyone with information as to his whereabouts is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers.