Organizers of the Freedom Convoy in the Canadian capital say they have notified police after being told that "nefarious elements" are planning to plant weapons at the Ottawa COVID-19 mandate demonstrations as a "pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protestors."

In a video posted to Facebook late on Feb. 14, organizers said they had received information from sources they consider to be "reliable" that the weapons may be planted.

The information, they said, correlates with the more than 2,000 firearms that were stolen in the city of Peterborough on the morning of Feb. 13.

Peterborough Police Service officers had said they are investigating the incident regarding the stolen firearms, which were taken from a trucking yard in the city in the early hours of the morning.

The truck and trailer were carrying more than 2,000 firearms with magazines but no ammunition was taken, officials said.

"Today on Feb. 14, we received information from multiple believed, reliable sources that firearms may be planted in Ottawa specifically around the Freedom Convey to discredit the protest and to use as a pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protestors," organizers of the Freedom Convoy said in the Facebook video.

"Due to the nature of this information, we felt it prudent to notify the public in the interest of their safety. This private intelligence correlates with the approximately 2,000 firearms stolen in Peterborough Ontario on Sunday morning, February 13.

"Our sources have notified us that these weapons may be planted by nefarious elements and at this point, we have no further knowledge about who is behind this act of sabotage," organizers continued.

"As soon as we received this information, we notified the appropriate authorities with whom we are collaborating, including the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Parliamentary Protective Service."