Pubdate: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 Source: Vancouver Sun (Canada) Contact: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Author: Chad Skelton POLICE POSE AS DRUG DEALERS IN COCAINE STING In the largest case of its kind in Canada, RCMP officers working under controversial new regulations that allow police to pose as drug dealers charged three men with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and seized $1.2 million in cash. Police described the men arrested Thursday night in Richmond as associates of a local motorcycle gang. On Friday police showed the media large stacks of seized $20, $50 and $100 bills. The "reverse sting" investigation -- in which undercover officers arranged a meeting in Richmond with suspects they had learned were in the market for 50 kilograms of cocaine -- was made possible by a change in police enforcement regulations by the federal justice department last year. That change effectively lets officers break drug laws if they are investigating a crime. RCMP spokesman Sergeant Russ Grabb was blunt in describing the impact of the new rules: "We have done reverse stings before, but they have been ruled illegal by the courts. . . . Police are now allowed to engage in what would otherwise be, technically, an unlawful act -- drug trafficking -- in order to collect evidence." As recently as this June, several charges were stayed against admitted marijuana dealer Frederick Creswell after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Humphries ruled a money-laundering sting, in which RCMP officers operated a currency exchange, was an illegal act. The Crown is appealing the verdict. The police enforcement regulations, which came into force on May 15, 1997, specifically mention, in an attached analysis, that problems in previous court cases "accentuated the need for legislation to provide explicit authority for police to engage in conduct that might otherwise be illegal." John Conroy, the Abbotsford lawyer who represents Creswell, said the regulations give police wide latitude to engage in criminal activity. "They're exempted from all the [drug] offences. They can grow it, traffic it, cultivate it and produce it -- everything you can think of. . . . It frightens me." Grabb said "no cocaine was actually delivered to the suspects in this case" and that it is RCMP policy not to add drugs into the system. Sergeant Chuck Doucette of the force's drug awareness program, would only say that selling drugs is "something we would not do if we could avoid it." Because the new police powers fall under justice department regulations, not legislation, they were not debated in Parliament. A justice department librarian in Vancouver had trouble even finding a copy of them, noting press releases aren't usually sent out on these types of changes. "The bureaucrats in Ottawa brought forward the amendments," Conroy said. "I doubt very much that there was much public debate." For their part, police argue the new rules are an essential tool in the fight against drugs. "Historically, we've posed as drug purchasers," Grabb said, and dealers are the lowest rung in criminal organizations. The best way to destabilize criminal groups is to take out the leaders, he said. And while drug bosses leave the selling of small amounts of drugs to others, they take a more active interest in a million dollars' worth of cocaine. But while police say the new rules let them catch the big fish, Conroy argues it allows them to catch small fry, too. The new powers provide no restriction on how big the case needs to be, he said, so police could theoretically use the rules to entrap individuals buying drugs for recreational use. Grabb said the RCMP has no interest in targeting individuals. "Our mandate is to target high-level drug dealers and organized crime only." Another recent change to the Controlled Drug and Substances Act was legislation allowing police to seize the "proceeds of crime," such as the money and property of drug dealers, to put those proceeds into law enforcement funds. The money seized this week will not go into police coffers -- because every last bill is evidence of the crime itself -- until a judge rules what to do with it. The arrest was the result of a 10-month undercover operation that involved more than 40 officers. Those facing charges are: John Terzakis, 30, of Vancouver, Greg James Hinchcliffe, 33, of Ridge Meadows and Sidney Gordon Dallas, 40, of Surrey. - ---