On February 25, 2026, the Manitoba government launched the Manitoba Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Task Force, a province-wide initiative to combat the sale of methamphetamine and fentanyl. While the group aims to coordinate police resources across the province, the move follows specific calls for help from leaders in Beausejour, who reported a rise in drug-related crime in August 2025.
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe is leading the provincial initiative, which includes officers from the RCMP, the Winnipeg Police Service, and municipal departments from Winkler, Altona, and Morden. The group will be advised by Kevin Brosseau, who was appointed as Canada’s fentanyl czar in 2025.
Police plan to use new legal tools to investigate how criminals generate illicit income and will focus on targeted sweeps to remove meth from the streets. These tools include unexplained wealth orders, which allow the province to force individuals to explain how they acquired expensive items or property suspected to be linked to criminal activity.
The creation of the task force follows a year of significant enforcement activity in Manitoba. In December 2025, a large-scale RCMP investigation known as Project Derry led to 23 arrests related to a drug trafficking network in Northern Manitoba, highlighting the growing reach of organized crime in the province’s rural and remote areas.
