OTTAWA - FORTY-SEVEN alleged gangsters were arrested in raids in three Canadian cities on Thursday, as part of one of the country's biggest investigations into cocaine trafficking, police said.

Some 700 officers executed warrants in Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario, for the arrest of 44 men and three woman.

They include a former Canadian Olympian, prisoners in two penitentiaries, and alleged Hell's Angels underlings, and are alleged members of three groups that colluded to import, distribute and sell illicit drugs.

The suspects were described as 'drug dealers but also a few people in charge of the trafficking. This is not just the bottom of the pyramid. We are talking about the top of it as well,' Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafreniere told public broadcaster CBC.

Weapons, cash and drugs were also seized in the raids, police said. -- AFP