Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2006 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Paul Cherry, The Gazette
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

POLICE OFFICER HELD AT DETENTION CENTRE

Information From U.S. Led To Investigation

Pierre Goulet will have to watch the World Cup behind
bars.

The Montreal police officer arrested Monday on drug trafficking and
money laundering charges is apparently a Brazil fan, judging by his
attire at his court appearance yesterday. Standing in the prisoners
dock of the Montreal courthouse in handcuffs and a green and yellow
jersey, Goulet, 41, was ordered to be held in custody until a bail
hearing, scheduled for July 10, a day after soccer's world champion is
crowned.

Goulet's lawyer Louis Belleau requested that he be held at a special
wing of the Riviere des Prairies detention centre. The wing is for
inmates who require protective custody.

Nine charges filed against Goulet, a 14-year veteran of the Montreal
police and a constable assigned to work security at Pierre Elliott
Trudeau International Airport, were made public yesterday.

Goulet is alleged to have taken part in a conspiracy to smuggle
cocaine into Canada over a period of two years, beginning on Feb. 1,
2000. The alleged conspiracy took place in Lacolle, a town near the
U.S. border, and in New York and Florida.

Among his alleged co-conspirators is a deceased convicted drug
trafficker who was the victim of a brutal slaying in downtown Montreal
in 2004, and a Quebec man who was extradited to the United States last
year in a major drug trafficking and money laundering case involving
the head of a Colombian cocaine ring.

Goulet is alleged to have conspired with Daniel Muir, who was fatally
attacked in February 2004 on Mountain St. by two men using a knife and
an axe. The homicide remains unsolved. According to court documents
used to extradite Bernard Mondou, another of Goulet's alleged
co-conspirators, Muir was in charge of $35 million for several Quebec
"investors" looking to smuggle cocaine into Canada at the time of his
death.

At the time he was indicted in the United States in 2004, Mondou was
listed as residing at the same house on Juliette Beliveau St. in St.
Bruno that Goulet was charged yesterday with possessing as the
proceeds of crime.

In the court documents filed during his extradition proceedings,
Mondou was described as "the primary point of contact for Canadian
drug trafficker Muir. Mondou has translated meetings from Spanish to
French for Muir and has directed the transportation of hundreds of
kilograms of cocaine from South Florida to Montreal, Canada."

The U.S. Justice Department also alleged Muir and Mondou purchased 800
kilograms of cocaine from a Colombian kingpin in July 2003 but were
scrambling to find more as half their shipment was ruined in transit.
Mondou, 41, was extradited to Florida last year, along with other
Quebecers, and could face life imprisonment if convicted.

Goulet is not mentioned in the U.S. indictment. But during a news
conference yesterday, Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme said the
investigation into Goulet began in 2004 after his police force
received information from U.S. authorities.

Delorme said the information came out of a U.S. investigation that
ended two years ago, but would not be specific. The police chief said
the information was not enough to have Goulet charged two years ago.
He said internal affairs investigators immediately began gathering
evidence and felt they had enough last week.

Goulet is also charged with trafficking in cocaine on June
16.

"I will say he knew dubious people close to members of organized
crime," Delorme said, adding investigators believe Goulet's work at
the airport had nothing to do with his alleged crimes.

Goulet asked for a transfer to work at the airport last year. The job
involved providing additional security in certain areas, like
checkpoints where people are searched before boarding a plane. Delorme
said the police force couldn't reject Goulet's request while he was
being investigated because his experience qualified him for the job. 
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