Violent criminal organization busted with help from Waterloo Regional Police

With help from Waterloo Regional Police, police services from across Ontario worked to bring down a violent criminal organization with links to the most powerful gang in the Bahamas.

The street gang known as the “Hot Mali Squad” (HMS) first caught the attention of Hamilton Police in 2019, as officers were responding to an increase in violent crime, shootings, and daylight homicides in Hamilton’s downtown core.

According to Hamilton Police, the gang was showing “a reckless disregard for human life.”

Since 2019, the gang spread to Waterloo Region, Brantford, Halton, and Toronto.

In an attempt to bring this group down, Hamilton Police coordinated “Project Churchill“.

Through investigation, they learned that HMS had expanded into a criminal organization, and had links to “One Order”, a Bahamian-based organization tagged by the Canadian government as the most powerful gang in that country, involved in smuggling guns into Canada by way of the U.S.

On Nov.13, Waterloo Regional Police joined police services from across the GTA in executing search warrants in Niagara Falls, Hamilton, St. Catherine’s and London.

24 people were arrested, ranging in ages from 62-years-old to just 17-years-old.

172 charges were laid, mostly trafficking-related, and large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl were seized.