Most-wanted GTA gun trafficker who skipped bail is nabbed in Atlanta
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The fourth time was not the charm for convicted firearms trafficker Kamar Cunningham.
Cunningham, 43, who had been sprung on bail three times, was arrested by the United States Marshals in Atlanta on Wednesday and is being held pending extradition back to Canada.
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Each time the gun runner breached his bail … he got bail again.
The Bolo Program (be on the lookout) had been offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the 43-year-old. He had been wanted on a bench warrant, a Superior Court Bench Warrant, a surety warrant and failure to comply with a release order.
Cunningham was arrested in June 2018 as part of Project Patton, an investigation into a cross-border gun-smuggling ring that brought firearms from the U.S. to the streets of Canada.
On Nov. 27, 2020, Cunningham was convicted of several firearms trafficking charges.
But hope springs eternal in the criminal milieu, and he was sprung on bail while awaiting sentencing. Cunningham was sentenced to nine years in prison in absentia on May 4, 2021, but by that time, he was in the wind and skipped his court date.
A Canada-wide warrant was then issued for his arrest.
Cops say the convicted firearms trafficker was on bail for the third time when he skipped out on sentencing.
At a March 19, 2024, press conference, Toronto Police Supt. Steve Watts told reporters that Project Patton was the largest seizure of firearms in the city’s history at the time, with around 75 arrests.
“He has been released on bail three times,” Watts said of Cunningham.
“Each time he has violated his release conditions before being arrested and released on bail again … Not surprisingly, he did not appear once again for a sentencing hearing.”
Bolo director Maxime Langlois was puzzled as to why a convicted gun runner was out on bail, particularly after breaching three previous orders.
“This is the first time Bolo has had the displeasure of featuring a convicted criminal in a Toronto campaign,” Langlois said at the time. “How is that even possible? … In six years of running Bolo, I’ve never heard such a lax application of bail by our courts.”
He added: “We’re talking here about someone who had repeatedly shown a disregard for the rule of law, who had broken his bail conditions time and again, who was convicted of trafficking firearms and who, despite all this, was allowed to remain in the community.”
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Detectives had believed Cunningham had been hiding in plain sight in Toronto and “continuing his criminal activities.” Cops also looked into the possibility that the Jamaican-born criminal was hiding on the Caribbean island.
Watts added that the vast majority of the guns seized in GTA crimes are illegal firearms.
“Many of these weapons find their way onto our streets and find their way through illicit channels across the U.S.-Canadian border and into the hands of criminals who show absolutely no regard for human life,” he said in 2024.
Police thanked the U.S. Marshals Service, Toronto Crime Stoppers and the Bolo Program for their assistance in nabbing Cunningham stateside.
@HunterTOSun
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