Superintendent Jason Crowley with the Windsor police department says a gun smuggling 'pipeline' moves firearms across the border from the U.S. "Those guns are now in the illegal market and being used as crime guns, typically," Crowley says.
#Black market arms serial numbers#
Criminals try to remove the serial numbers to make them untraceable. "Straw purchasing" is when a legal Canadian firearm licence-holder buys a gun and then sells it on the black market. Some of these guns were stolen from their legitimate owners and resold, others were bought legally by Canadians and then offered for sale illegally for a profit. "It's Toronto-specific that the crime guns, that the majority of them are domestic, predominately through straw purchasing," Saunders says. While the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police says it is working with Statistics Canada to compile national figures, Chief Saunders says what he's seen in Toronto is a growing concern.
(Echosec/Beacon) Straw buyersĪnother growing source of illegal guns in Canada, according to police, is firearms that were originally bought legitimately through retailers. Some of the guns found for sale on the dark web in a recent Echosec/Beacon search. He says the influx of firearms has contributed to an increase in violent gun crime in Canada. "You will see a gun, a firearm purchased in the States for potentially $200 to $300, and they'll go on the streets for $3,000."Ĭrowley calls it a "pipeline" - guns smuggled across the border from Detroit into Windsor, and then to cities across the country. Superintendent Jason Crowley with the Windsor police department says the appeal of smuggling guns is pure economics. The RCMP were also given $34.5 million over five years for the new Integrated Criminal Firearms Initiative to enhance intelligence gathering, technology and investigations. Last year, The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was granted an extra $51.5 million in funding over five years to enhance screening, detection and training around firearms smuggling. WATCH: The National's feature on where violent criminals get guns in Canada.In one remarkable instance involving Montrealer Alexis Vlachos, firearms were smuggled through a public library that straddles the border with the U.S. They are hidden in gas tanks, the trunks of cars, in luggage, or on someone's body. border has fluctuated over the years - 751 were seized during the 2017-18 fiscal year, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. The number of firearms confiscated at the Canada-U.S. That's not to say smuggling isn't still a problem. Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders says the force is trying to reduce gun violence in the city, and efforts include a gun-buyback program. According to police, a growing number of guns are bought legally in Canada and resold on the black market, or made here illegally. The majority of the illegal guns in Canada used to be smuggled across the border from the U.S., but that seems to be changing. Police are trying to reduce the number of guns through things like Toronto's current gun buyback program, which pays $200 for long guns and $350 for handguns. By Friday, two weeks into the three-week program, it had collected 1,235 firearms. But even as programs like this seek to get guns out of circulation, fresh ones are being added through the black market. That means looking more closely at the flow of guns throughout the country. "And so we have to look at the problem from a bigger perspective." "Gun violence is getting worse, there is more access to firearms," Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told CBC News. Police are scrambling to keep pace with criminals who are coming up with creative ways to supply Canada's black market with firearms.