The Toronto Police Service said it had seized more than $22 million in imported drugs. The investigation was dubbed Project Khiar, khiar being the Farsi word for cucumber. It was launched in January 2010 after two shipments of opium were seized in Montreal. In one shipment, 17.6 kilograms were formed in the shape of pickled cucumbers and in the other 98.7 kilograms were concealed in the walls of a refrigerator.
Over the next year, police discovered further shipments of opium concealed inside industrial bolts, liquefied into cherry syrup and hidden within the framework of armoires.
The nine arrested are Fardin Ayati-Ghaffari, 47, Saeid Chegini, 27, Mansour Chegini, 50, Naeim Dehghansai Ghahra-manlou, 27, Shahin Azhadi, 38, Somayyeh Fathollahi-Ghocheh, 26, Mehrdad Barehi, 40, Mohsen Rouhani Esfahani, 44, and Crystal Lee Eden, 31.
Three men are still wanted by police: Mohamed Medhi Sajjadi, 41, Lakhbir Shokar, 46, and Jamshid Royan, 41.