The Canada Border Services Agency has launched a new operation aimed at keeping narcotics off local streets.
Operation Blizzard is in effect to stop fentanyl and other synthetic narcotics from reaching communities across the country and abroad.
This cross-country initiative will look to intercept illegal drugs arriving and leaving Canada, and during this blitz CBSA officers will be increasing examinations of inbound and outbound shipments.
In February 2025 alone, the CBSA made six seizures amounting to 56.1 grams of fentanyl, including the seizure of 20 fentanyl pills and 23 grams of a substance suspected to be fentanyl from two U.S. citizens crossing at the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel.
Daniel Anson, Director General of Intelligence and Investigation for Operation Blizzard, says this operation is a really big effort.
"Focusing on where we know the greatest threat to be, applying a lot of the officers, and the commercial officers, and the border services officers to the highest threat areas, supported by the National Targeting Centre, like truly a national effort on the backs of our officers, hugely supported by our Intelligence Capability which is informing where we focus our efforts so that we can be efficient and impactful."
He says drivers at ports of entry won't notice huge impacts due to these operations.
"A big portion of the CBSA is not really in the public sight, so our intelligence, our enforcement, our commercial operations, a lot of that stuff is not where you're going to see people. You're not greeting people coming back to Canada, you're not providing checks and examinations in that regard, it's commercial streams. We're focused on areas where fentanyl and opioids tend to move."
Anson says these operations have been underway even before U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs due to border security and fentanyl trafficking issues.
"We already had a ton of national operations underway, we have counter meth operations, we're working on preventing a lot of our drugs, amphetamines from leaving the west coast in Canada, we work in close partnership with Australia and New Zealand to tackle some major issues across the Pacific."
The goal of the operation is to disrupt the supply chain for fentanyl and other illicit drugs through Canada.
On February 11, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Kevin Brosseau as Canada's Fentanyl Czar. Brosseau will work closely with U.S. counterparts and law enforcement agencies.
-with files from AM800's The Shift with guest host Kyle Horner