Pubdate: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2005, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://torontosun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457 Author: Ian McDougall Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/charges+dropped JUDGE TOSSES DRUG CASE Delays Set Women Free Cocaine importation charges against two women have been stayed thanks to justice's slowly turning wheels. Christine McNeilly and Karla Roy were arrested on Dec. 14, 2002, at Pearson International Airport after Canada Customs inspectors found 1.5 kilos of cocaine in false suitcase compartments, according to a ruling from Brampton Justice Casey Hill made public yesterday. The women were arrested during a security blitz at Pearson in which multiple charges were laid against several people. In total, the Pearson blitz stopped an estimated $1 million in cocaine from hitting Toronto streets, authorities said at the time of the bust. POLICE BLAMED About 240 international flights were targeted by customs officers using X-ray scanners and drug-detecting dogs. About 740 travellers were sent for extra security checks during the blitz. But in his ruling, Hill criticized police and the Crown for delays in getting evidence ready, incomplete disclosure and officers failing to show up in court on days they were to testify. "Unfortunately the police, through their conduct, managed to hijack the preliminary inquiry," Hill ruled. In all, Hill concluded, there was an unreasonable delay in getting the women to trial. "This was by no means a complex case," he wrote. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin