He's out more than $200,000, property and three vehicles -- and on top of all that, a former Regina drug kingpin is facing a lengthy prison term. Nam Lu Truong was sentenced this week to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to traffick in cocaine, possession of proceeds of crime, and trafficking in cocaine. Under a proposal put forward by Crown prosecutor Wade McBride and defence lawyer Dave Halvorsen on Tuesday, Truong was sentenced to five years in prison and also fined $317,483. He forfeited $217,483, leaving a debt of $100,000 outstanding. As a result, Justice Ian McLellan added two more years to the sentence. [continues 300 words]
RCMP credit hard work and good old-fashioned luck for its recent success in intercepting several sizable drug shipments in traffic stops on the Trans-Canada Highway near Moose Jaw. "When we go out, and we conduct our traffic stops, you never know what you're going to get," said Const. Dan Donison, a member of traffic enforcement and part of the team of officers with the Moose Jaw RCMP detachment who made the busts. Since late August, the Moose Jaw Mounties have uncovered large amounts of cocaine and marijuana while stopping vehicles in what began as a routine traffic investigation, for such violations as speeding and expired licence plates. [continues 467 words]
REGINA - RCMP credit hard work and good old-fashioned luck for its recent success in intercepting several sizable drug shipments in traffic stops on the Trans-Canada Highway near Moose Jaw. "When we go out and we conduct our traffic stops, you never know what you're going to get," said Const. Dan Donison, a member of traffic enforcement and part of the team of officers with the Moose Jaw RCMP detachment who made the busts. Since late August, the Moose Jaw Mounties have uncovered large amounts of cocaine and marijuana while stopping vehicles in what began as a routine traffic investigation, for such violations as speeding and expired licence plates. [continues 467 words]
Regina -- Call It Justice With A Dose Of Therapy. When Judge Clifford Toth takes his seat at Regina provincial court today, it will mark the start of a new court that merges health and the law. Regina Drug Treatment Court (DTC) is targeted at drug-addicted, non-violent offenders. The idea is that a mix of court and intensive counselling, backed up by monitoring and random drug tests, might better help set those offenders straight. "Rather than looking at just somebody simply serving time, the focus is on dealing with some of the underlying issues of why they're going in and out of the justice system," DTC co-ordinator Darlene Rude said. [continues 499 words]
Call It Justice With A Dose Of Therapy. When Judge Clifford Toth takes his seat at Regina Provincial Court today, it will mark the start of a new court that merges health and the law. Regina Drug Treatment Court (DTC) is aimed at drug-addicted, non-violent offenders. The notion is that a mix of court and intensive counselling backed up by monitoring and drug tests might better set those offenders straight. "Rather than looking at just somebody simply serving time, the focus is on dealing with some of the underlying issues of why they're going in and out of the justice system," DTC co-ordinator Darlene Rude said in an interview Monday. [continues 468 words]
A case that saw 100 pounds of pot seized on the Trans-Canada Highway is headed back to trial after the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled a bid by the defence to get RCMP data was a "fishing expedition." Drug charges against Margaret Jean Fitch originally went up in smoke when the Crown failed to produce information about RCMP vehicle stops and searches that had been requested by the defence. The charges against the 36-year-old B.C. woman were stayed, prompting the Crown to appeal. [continues 479 words]
REGINA -- A case that saw 100 pounds of pot seized on the Trans-Canada Highway is headed back to trial, after the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled a bid by the defence to get RCMP data was a "fishing expedition." Drug charges against Margaret Jean Fitch originally went up in smoke when the Crown failed to produce information about RCMP vehicle stops and searches that had been requested by the defence. The charges against the 36-year-old B.C. woman were stayed, prompting the Crown to appeal. [continues 478 words]
Rounding a corner on a remote, Prairie, dirt trail with his $1-million stash of pot, Paul Allan Noyce spotted a vehicle waiting for him and knew immediately the game was up. The debt-ridden, 21-year-old university student hoping to turn a quick buck was making his first solo trip using a hand-drawn map of the "North Star," a route used by drug dealers bringing high-grade "B.C. bud" into the land of Budweiser. He stopped the blue Dodge Caravan and steeled his nerves. [continues 2738 words]
He's gone from carpenter to drug exporter, and now Daren Wayne Smith will be a federal inmate for his role in an unprecedented scheme that saw in excess of $10 million worth of marijuana pass through Saskatchewan's borders. "He became involved in and continued this sophisticated, high-level, commercial drug trafficking and exportation operation for the money -- and there was plenty of it," Justice Ted Zarzeczny said Monday in sentencing the 40-year-old Smith to six years in prison. [continues 577 words]
Convicted in the largest drug exportation scheme involving this province, a 40-year-old man will wait until March while a judge mulls over the right sentence for the unprecedented case. In sentencing submissions Tuesday, the Crown suggested Daren Wayne Smith should serve in excess of 10 years behind bars, while the defence argued four years would be more than sufficient. "If we are to maintain confidence in the administration of justice and send a signal to other members of the public, a low-range sentence will not do," contended Al McIntyre, agent for the federal Crown. [continues 505 words]
Despite his lawyer's attempts to have his client home for Christmas, a 40-year-old man who played a pivotal role in one of the largest drug operations involving this province is in jail. Given the jury's verdict Friday convicting Daren Wayne Smith of all seven charges he faced, Justice Ted Zarzeczny revoked his bail and ordered him taken into custody. The charges stemmed from an investigation dubbed "Project Farwest" that uncovered large shipments of "B.C. bud" pot packed in hockey bags and hauled across the Saskatchewan-U.S. border in vehicles rented by Smith. [continues 617 words]
A van stopped near the Saskatchewan-U.S. border carried enough marijuana to keep a moderate to heavy pot user happy for 320 to 480 years, a Regina courtroom heard Thursday. "There is no way that amount of marijuana is for personal use," RCMP drug expert Staff Sgt. Bruce McStay testified, explaining moderate to heavy pot use would range from one to one and half grams per day. "391 pounds of marijuana -- there's no doubt in my mind that's possession for the purpose of trafficking," he said. [continues 462 words]
A jury at a Regina trial got a lesson in the economics of drug smuggling from a man who says he was Daren Wayne Smith's courier, taking truckloads of pot to the U.S. and returning on occasion with bags of cocaine. "He (Smith) told me basically the reason why (the exchange) . . . Marijuana from B.C. is worth a lot more in the States than it is in B.C. because there's so much of it here," Logan Sebastian Green testified Wednesday. "And cocaine from the States is worth a lot more in B.C. than it is in the States. So they would swap what they have and triple their money or something like that," he said. [continues 487 words]
A man accused of exporting large shipments of marijuana had his own mother helping courier the drugs from Canada to the United States, a witness told a Regina trial Tuesday. Nile Simmons testified his cousin Daren Wayne Smith, of Abbotsford, B.C., hired him in September 2001 for two drug runs into the U.S. via Saskatchewan. He knew the illegal border crossing as "North Star," a route near Lake Alma. Just before his second trip, Simmons learned Smith's mother would travel with him while her son stayed home. In Smith's garage, the trio counted out half-pound bags of pot that were loaded in eight to 10 hockey bags, court heard. "There was lot," he said. [continues 437 words]
$500,000 Operation In Wascana View home A house on aptly-named Wascana Greens in an affluent, southeast Regina neighbourhood had more than a half million dollars worth of pot plants growing in the basement. "With over 500 plants and they estimate over $500,000 -- that would be a significant grow operation," Regina police spokesperson Elizabeth Popowich said Friday. A man and woman who, according to police, reside in the house were charged and released from custody. "It was a family residence," said Popowich, who confirmed children also live there. [continues 456 words]
Rare is the Saskatchewan farm truck that has carried a crop worth millions of dollars, but that's the size of vehicle it took to haul away thousands of marijuana plants reaped in the province's biggest pot bust. "(It was) a very high-valued crop with lots of money and lots of work involved," RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Brian Jones told reporters at a news conference Monday. Beneath a harvest moon one day earlier, RCMP officers finished counting and packing up 7,592 marijuana plants found growing in makeshift greenhouses on a farm on the Pasqua First Nation, about 20 kilometres west of Fort Qu'Appelle. [continues 413 words]
RCMP Haul Away Nearly 7,600 Marijuana Plants Valued At $7.5M REGINA -- Rare is the Saskatchewan farm truck that has carried a crop worth millions of dollars, but that's what it took to haul away thousands of marijuana plants reaped in the province's biggest pot bust. "(It was) a very high-valued crop with lots of money and lots of work involved," RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Brian Jones told reporters at a news conference Monday. Beneath a harvest moon one day earlier, RCMP officers finished counting and packing up 7,592 marijuana plants found growing in makeshift greenhouses on a farm on the Pasqua First Nation, about 20 kilometres west of Fort Qu'Appelle. A five-ton farm truck, borrowed from a local farmer, could hold only 6,000 of the leafy green stalks. The rest of the stash had to be carted off in another vehicle [continues 410 words]
Meth-Related Crimes Alarm Police Agencies REGINA -- As Gary Walter lay dying on a Nipawin street, the 19-year-old who had just kicked and punched the mentally challenged man to a bloodied pulp rifled through his victim's pockets in search of cash. Sentenced in January to 11 years in prison for manslaughter, Wesley Alan Harker's only recollection of killing the 56-year-old nine months earlier is that "something snapped." That same day, a Prince Albert courtroom hears about a home invasion by three men looking for "jib." They confronted a mother and her three children, including an 11-year-old boy who tangled with the intruders. [continues 1889 words]
As Gary Walter lay dying on a Nipawin street, the 19-year-old who had just kicked and punched the mentally challenged man to a bloodied pulp rifled through his victim's pockets in search of cash. Sentenced in January to 11 years in prison for manslaughter, Wesley Alan Harker's only recollection of killing the 56-year-old nine months earlier is that "something snapped." That same day, a Prince Albert courtroom hears about a home invasion by three men looking for "jib." They confronted a mother and her three children, including an 11-year-old boy who tangled with the intruders. [continues 1902 words]
On the brink of taking his Mountie oath, cadet Bryan Gardner -- like officers across the country -- got a "wake-up" about the job's inherent dangers with the slayings of four Alberta officers. "We're all shocked and saddened by what occurred, especially since a week from now we're all going to be in the same profession," he told reporters Friday. As he and other cadets in Troop 18 prepare for their approaching graduation, none were re-thinking their career choice, Gardner said. [continues 533 words]
