It's a drug meant to have a calming effect but on Wednesday, fake Xanax pills were at the heart of a major police operation involving an alleged drug trafficking ring in and around Montreal.

Brothers Simon and Christian Davidson, aged 31 and 25 years old, were two of five people charged on Wednesday with trafficking millions of pills. They are also the sons of alleged mafia informant Ian Davidson, a Montreal sergeant-detective who committed suicide in January 2012 after police learned he had been trying to sell a list of police informants to the mafia.

The five accused are believed to have been running the fake Xanax ring in Longueuil, Laval, and other areas in and around Montreal. Police say they seized two million pills and $200,000 in cash, along with five machines needed to make the pills. Each machine could make 20,000 pills an hour. The pills were to be sold on the Internet, no prescription needed.

“People who make those pills are not professionals, they're not chemists, they're average Joes making as best as they can,” said Martin Evangeliste of Laval Police’s Organized Crime Division.

Police say the ring was using Canada Post to ship packages of drugs throughout Canada and the United States. It was the crown corporation that alerted the RCMP of the operation.

Journalist Vincent Larouche co-wrote a book about police informants titled Taupes: infiltrations, mensonges et trahisons (Moles: infiltrations, lies and betrayal). 

The crime reporter said the two Davidson sons took very different paths in life, although they seem to have ended up in the same spot. 

"One of them was very attracted to the police world. Many people in his family were police officers, said Larouche. 

"The other one, the younger one, he was really hanging out with a tougher crowd. He was hanging out in bars with some criminals."

The suspects are expected to appear in court Friday for bail hearings.