Toronto: Peel Regional Police have arrested four people, including a woman, after an undercover investigation into an alleged illegal firearms-trafficking network operating in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
During Project Red Zone, police seized 23 illegal firearms, around 825 grams of cocaine and more than 950 live rounds of ammunition.
The operation was conducted by the Peel Regional Police’s Specialized Enforcement Bureau in cooperation with the US Department of Homeland Security and Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario (CISO). Police said the investigation began in October 2025 and continued until July 2026.
According to police, 15 of the seized firearms had been brought into Canada from the United States, while several others are prohibited in Canada.
Weapons linked to shootings
Police said forensic examination established that one of the seized firearms was linked to a March 2024 homicide in Mississauga, in which one person was killed and another seriously injured.
Investigators also linked firearms seized during Project Red Zone to 14 separate shooting incidents across the GTA, according to police.
The arrested individuals were identified as Stephen Prakash Kansala, 24, of Scarborough; Akshay Srikanthan, 24, of Ajax; Sami Sheikh, 28, of Mississauga; and Janoj Dhyabaran, 23, of Toronto.
Police said all four face charges related to the trafficking of firearms and ammunition.
Kansala and Dhyabaran have been held in custody pending bail hearings, while Srikanthan and Sheikh were released and are scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice at a later date.
Police did not release information about the accused persons’ race, nationality or background.
Peel Regional Police said they have recovered 125 crime-related firearms so far this year.
