Pubdate: Thu, 06 Apr 2017
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Keith Fraser
Page: 5

EXTRADITION OVERTURNED IN MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY CASE

The B.C. Court of Appeal has overturned an extradition order for three
men accused in a conspiracy to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of
marijuana across the U.S. border in hollowed-out logs.

In April 2015, Shane Donald Fraser, Daniel James Joinson and Todd Ian
Ferguson were ordered committed for extradition in connection with the
conspiracy, in which at least nine shipments of logs were moved from
the Okanagan to California in 2006.

Law enforcement officials in Ontario, Calif. seized 10 logs, each
around 7.5 metres long, that were hollowed out. A total of 333.5
kilograms of high-grade pot was seized.

The case against the accused depended primarily on wiretap evidence.
At the accused's extradition hearing, they applied for disclosure
relating to the judicial authorization to intercept their private
electronic communications in Canada.

They claimed that the information was needed to determine whether
their rights had been violated by the RCMP.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk, the extradition judge,
concluded that the information before the court was sufficient to
determine the Charter issues. She dismissed the disclosure application
and ordered the men committed for extradition.

On appeal, the accused claimed that the judge made a number of errors
in her decision to deny the disclosure application.

A three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal agreed that mistakes
made by the extradition judge were serious enough to warrant the
appeal being upheld and a new extradition hearing was ordered.

Four other men who were ordered extradited in connection with the same
case but who had evidence against them gathered largely by
surveillance have had their appeals dismissed.
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