An allegation of police entrapment in the high-profile drug trial of two men who were arrested in the three-year J Tornado investigation has been thrown out.
It centred around Blackberry phones that the RCMP had supplied unknowingly to the drug suspects, who believed they were encrypted, with the messages actually going back to police servers.
The Crown had contended that before diving into the actual merits of the application it must be decided whether it has an “air of reality,” which prosecutor Nicole Poirier argued it didn’t. Defence lawyer Brian Munro argued that once going down the “rabbit holes” of giving out the devices the wheels were put in motion for the creation of a criminal organization.
“To suggest they didn’t push the phones would in and of itself be unrealistic,” says Munro.
Poirier says the RCMP didn’t create the situation.
“They took a situation that already existed and transposed it into an investigating tool.”
Justice William Grant agreed with the Crown that there was no air of reality, and says these phones didn’t induce the creation of a criminal organization they were the means of infiltrating one. He says at the end of the day all the police did was give them the phones.
“They chose how they would use them,” says Justice Grant.
Sentencing for 34-year-old Shane Williams of Smithtown and 39-year-old Joshua Kindred of Saint John is taking place on November 16. Charges include trafficking in cocaine, conspiracy to traffic, and possession for the purpose of trafficking.
29 people were arrested as part of Operation J Tornado back in 2014.
Items seized from Operation J Tornado in 2014
