Toronto

A cleverly hidden compartment inside a pickup truck wasn’t enough to keep cops from finding a massive stash of cocaine — larger than anything the Toronto drug squad has ever seized before.

The 73 kilos of blow — the bulk of the $8.98 million in drugs seized recently in Project Polar — is the largest coke bust the service has made without the involvement of other authorities.

The six-week investigation also led to the arrest of a 32-year-old man with no prior criminal record.

“In the drug business, in the drug culture, if you are entrusted with this amount of product ... then you are at a certain very high level,” drug squad acting Insp. Steve Watts told a news conference Thursday.

Watts wouldn’t reveal what prompted the ongoing Project Polar probe but did say the importing of such a large amount of cocaine undoubtedly involves organized crime.

Drug squad investigators initially searched the man’s pickup and allegedly discovered 17 kilos of coke inside a hidden compartment located behind the rear seat.

“It’s what we call a trap vehicle,” Watts said, explaining such compartments have no visible controls for opening them.

Traps are typically opened by a complicated combination of pushing buttons on the console in a specific sequence, switching on controls like the defroster, and other procedures such as ensuring the doors are closed and someone is sitting in the driver’s seat.

“It would be highly unlikely for a uniformed patrol officer to ever discover this trap,” Watts said.

Such custom-built compartments can easily cost more than $5,000.

“But obviously when you are transporting a commodity that’s very expensive and with a lot of jeopardy attached to it, then you’re willing to pay a significant amount to have a very sophisticated trap in your vehicle,” Watts said.

After the initial drug seizure, police searched the man’s home and allegedly found 56 kilos of cocaine, 12 kilos of crystal meth, and eight kilos of MDMA, also known as ecstasy.

No guns were seized, but Watts said there is no telling how much violence may be avoided by stopping the drugs from being distributed across the GTA.

“That’s the nature of the business,” he said. “Drugs and firearms and violence go together.”

Nicholas Shouldice, of Toronto, faces charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine, MDMA and crystal meth.

PROJECT POLAR BY THE NUMBERS:

73 kilos of cocaine seized.

12 kilos of crystal meth seized.

8 kilos of MDMA, aka ecstasy, seized.

$7.3 million worth of cocaine.

$1.2 million worth of crystal meth.

$480,000 worth of MDMA.

$8.98 million total street value.

17 kilos of coke found in pickup truck.

56 kilos of coke found at a residence.

cdoucette@postmedia.com

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