A coast-to-coast crackdown called Project Steel has locked up 40 suspects, including men from Brampton, Hamilton, and Durham, with over 150 charges tied to child exploitation. The operation, a joint effort by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police Service, and others, zeroed in on creeps making, holding, and spreading child sexual abuse material. Cops pinpointed 31 victims—20 kids now safe—and seized 686 gadgets in the sweep.
Among the caught: a 36-year-old Brampton guy nabbed for possessing child porn, and a 65-year-old from the same city hit with possession and distribution raps. A 65-year-old Hamilton man faces possession charges, while a 30-year-old from Ajax got tagged for possession and accessing illegal content. One standout case nabbed a repeat offender—fresh off a prior sex-crime stint—whose devices revealed a public assault on a kid and dozens of online victims. OPP’s Det. Staff Sgt. Tim Brown hailed the bust as proof of police grit: “We’re unstoppable when we team up to shield kids from predators.”