Police in Sault Ste. Marie say they are cracking down on people in the illicit drug business in the city, and will be charging them much more aggressively.

This week, they added two charges of mischief endangering life to a 36-year-old Sudbury man’s previous other charges laid at the end of last year.

Police say a search of the accused’s vehicle produced 18 grams of fentanyl, worth about $10,800, packaging materials, a scale, a shotgun, and pepper spray.  Five initial charges were made at that time, including drug trafficking, firearm related charges, and assaulting an officer.

The new charges are related to an incident that happened during the accused man’s arrest in December.

Police allege the man purposefully opened a bag of fentanyl, which was seized during the arrest, and threw it at an officer.

A swab taken from the officer’s vest was confirmed by Health Canada to be fentanyl, which led to the additional two charges made on March 19.

“The interesting point of the latest arrest in relation to opioid distribution in this community is that we’re trying to send, and we are sending, the message that if you are involved with opioid distribution in this community, you can expect that you’re going to face, not only possession or trafficking drug charges, but we are aggressively looking at more serious criminal offences that involve negligence. In this particular case, it’s alleged that the accused threw fentanyl or an opioid product on our officers for the purpose of injuring them. And that is where we take this very seriously and hopefully the drug subculture understands that this is a violent type of offense and we will aggressively pursue it in court.” said Sault Ste. Marie Police Chief Hugh Stevenson.