Pubdate: Wed, 31 Mar 2004
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Bob Mitchell

OFFICER CHARGED IN $2.9M DRUG BUST

Cocaine, Hash Discovered In Car

Audit Under Way Of Evidence Room

A Peel Region police officer one month from retirement faces criminal 
charges after millions of dollars worth of drugs disappeared from a police 
property room.

The 29-year veteran's car was surrounded by armed officers Monday 
afternoon, moments after he finished his shift in the drug property room at 
Peel police headquarters on Derry Rd. in Brampton.

Police say they found 6 kilos of cocaine, worth an estimated $2.5 million, 
in the trunk of a Cadillac.

Hashish worth about $400,000 was later found at another location.

Investigators allege drugs that had been seized by Peel police were stolen 
from the property room and offered for sale.

An internal audit of the drug property room is under way, with a further 15 
kilos of hashish apparently missing, police sources said, calling the case 
an embarrassment to the force.

Police are also reviewing how seized drugs are stored.

Peel Sergeant Todd Moore said the arrest does not jeopardize any drug 
trials, and no other police are involved.

"We're alleging (the accused) basically acted as a one-man show," Moore said.

Police sources said the accused officer had been under surveillance for 
several months, but would not reveal what led to the investigation.

Constable Martin Goold, 59, of Mississauga has been charged with theft and 
fraud over $5,000, possession of stolen property, breach of trust and 
possession of cocaine and hashish for the purpose of trafficking.

He appeared briefly in court yesterday and is due back in a Brampton 
courtroom today.

He is expected to remain in custody until at least his bail hearing, 
scheduled for April 15.

Goold, who is married with a family, has been working as one of several 
property co-ordinators in Peel's morality and drug property room since 
about 1998. He had previously been a uniformed officer but not an 
investigator, and he never worked with the drug unit.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom