In The News | Drug Offences

Medicine Hat defence lawyer Randall Pick may have to testify in a cocaine trafficking case. Pick was the lawyer when a guilty plea was entered to a charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking May 11. The accused was then released on bail until his sentencing, which was to have taken place in provincial court Tuesday. Instead, the accused's new lawyer, Patrick Fagan of Calgary, asked to have the guilty plea overturned, saying Pick had given the accused an ...

A 30-year-old Mexican man was arrested and charged in connection with the city’s largest cocaine bust because he had booked a hotel room for a fellow Mexican caught with illicit drugs. RCMP Sgt. Grant MacPhee of the RCMP said under cross-examination by defence lawyer Pat Fagan that the accused volunteered the fact he had reserved a room for Ricardo Rangel Corona at the airport hotel. MacPhee said the accused told him he was waiting Sept. 2, 1999, for his mother …

A missing defendant showed up and one of the five co-accused was set free Tuesday, as a marijuana trafficking conspiracy trial got underway in Saint John. Dwayne Noel Ireland, who had car trouble in Quebec on his way from Calgary to the trial, slipped into his seat Tuesday after the judge was already on the bench. As the seven lawyers were identifying themselves for the court record, Mr. Ireland sat down. When his lawyer John Henderson said, “my client is …

CALGARY (Sun Media) – Acting on a rare tip possibly supplied by a criminal rival, city police say they seized a haul of cocaine worth up to $800,000 destined for Calgary streets. The anonymous tip led police to a car they stopped May 9 in the 300 block of Country Hills Blvd. N.W. In the trunk, they found 8 kg of cocaine that, if sold by the gram, would be worth $800,000, said the Acting Staff Sergeant. “The tip could …

A 29-year-old man is under house arrest at his Blackie area home after pleading guilty at Okotoks Provincial Court on Sept. 21 to trafficking cocaine. Federal Crown prosecutor BAxter Lee told Judge R.J. Wilkins that on April 9, 2006, HIgh River RCMP, after a substantial investigation, was issued a search warrant for [the accused’s] residence. At the time [the accused] was living in a residence on Scott Close in the hamlet of Blackie. Lee said RCMP found 22 grams of …

A four-month investigation has led officers to the largest cocaine bust in city history. Nearly $4 million worth of cocaine was pulled from two homes and vehicles in south Calgary, as well as nine firearms, about $90,000 in cash and a pill press used to make ecstasy, the Calgary Police Service said Wednesday. “This was a record seizure for us,” said Insp. Rob Williams. “We (have) 38 bricks of cocaine, each weighing in excess of a kilogram.” The drugs were …

By SARAH KENNEDY, CALGARY SUN With some TAC team members rappelling down a 27-storey building and others storming through hallways, a luxury condo was busted by police who seized hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drugs, handguns and vehicles. The bust — the result of a three month investigation — happened Thursday evening in a condo at 920 5 Ave. S.W. where three people were arrested. Inside the upscale suite, cops seized $143,000 worth of cocaine, $11,000 worth of …