Last week, a quiet Richmond Hill neighborhood near 16th Avenue and Bayview Avenue was disrupted when York Regional Police responded to reports of unknown trouble at a townhouse around 9:30 p.m. on December 11. What they uncovered was far from ordinary.

Inside the townhouse, officers encountered a man now identified as 35-year-old Richmond Hill resident Zoltan Mootoo. A subsequent investigation revealed that the residence was operating as a clandestine drug lab actively producing hundreds of pills suspected to be oxycodone.

The gravity of the situation prompted officers to return the following day armed with a search warrant. What they discovered was a staggering cache – 23 kilograms of various powders, 781 liters of liquids, over 34,000 pills, and an array of pill-making paraphernalia. To add to the severity of the case, rounds of 9mm caliber ammunition were also seized.

The police estimate the street value of the confiscated drugs to exceed $1 million, underscoring the scale of the illegal operation taking place in this unsuspecting suburban townhouse.

Zoltan Mootoo now faces a litany of charges, including three counts of drug possession with the purpose of trafficking. It was revealed that Mootoo was on probation and out on bail at the time of his arrest, raising questions about the efficacy of the justice system in monitoring individuals with a history of criminal activity.