Neighbors to North Look to U.S. Experience MONTREAL - For police forces across Canada, August is harvest time. Officers slip on their coveralls, grab thick gardening gloves, shoulder machetes and begin the annual ritual of chopping down marijuana plants hidden in cornfields, remote mountain valleys and forest clearings. If the grower is unlucky enough to be caught redhanded, he is cuffed and taken off to court. Each police unit hits two or three of these hidden marijuana plantations, with the confiscated pot taken to incinerators. The destruction of marijuana plants goes on for about two weeks, and then it's back to normal police work. [continues 984 words]
MONTREAL - For police forces across Canada, August is harvest time. Officers slip on their coveralls, grab thick gardening gloves, shoulder machetes and begin the annual ritual of chopping down marijuana plants hidden in cornfields, remote mountain valleys and forest clearings. If the grower is unlucky enough to be caught red-handed, he is cuffed and taken off to court. Each police unit hits two or three of these hidden marijuana plantations, with the confiscated pot taken to incinerators. The destruction of marijuana plants goes on for about two weeks, and then it's back to normal police work. [continues 1101 words]
It Would Be the First G-20 Country to Nationally Allow Recreational Use Montreal - For police forces across Canada, the month of August is harvest time. Officers slip on their coveralls, grab thick gardening gloves, shoulder machetes and begin the annual ritual of chopping down marijuana plants hidden in cornfields, remote mountain valleys and forest clearings. If growers are unlucky enough to be caught red-handed, they are cuffed and taken to court. Each police unit hits two or three of these hidden marijuana plantations, with the confiscated pot taken to incinerators. The destruction of marijuana plants goes on for about two weeks, and then it's back to normal police work. [continues 1082 words]
MONTREAL - For police forces across Canada, the month of August is harvest time. Officers slip on their coveralls, grab thick gardening gloves, shoulder machetes and begin the annual ritual of chopping down marijuana plants hidden in cornfields, remote mountain valleys and forest clearings. If the grower is unlucky enough to be caught red-handed, he is cuffed and taken off to court. Each police unit hits two or three of these hidden marijuana plantations, with the confiscated pot taken to incinerators. The destruction of marijuana plants goes on for about two weeks, and then it's back to normal police work. [continues 751 words]
Canadian consul's son killed, other charged Bloodstains were still visible in the doorway of an apartment in the quiet Miami neighbourhood of Coral Way on Wednesday, two days after an alleged plan to rip off a drug dealer left one of the sons of Canada's Consul General to Florida dead and another charged with murder. Jean Wabafiyebazu, the 17-year-old son of longtime diplomat Roxanne Dube, died in hospital of injuries suffered in Monday's shootout, which police say erupted during a dispute over two pounds of marijuana, valued at US$5,000. His 15-year-old brother Marc is being held in a youth detention centre, charged with felony murder and potentially facing the death penalty. [continues 921 words]
De Marcus Sanders lives in the small city of Waterloo, smack in the middle of Iowa farm country. Several years ago, he was driving his car through town playing his music a little too loud, so a police officer pulled him over. "My music was up," he later told a researcher with the American Civil Liberties Union. "So I didn't argue with him." The officer said he smelled marijuana and searched Sanders' car. When he found one marijuana seed on the floor, he arrested him. Sanders pleaded guilty to possession and got 30 days in jail. [continues 705 words]
De Marcus Sanders lives in the small city of Waterloo, smack in the middle of Iowa farm country. Several years ago, he was driving his car through town playing his music a little too loud, so a police officer pulled him over. "My music was up," he later told a researcher with the American Civil Liberties Union. "So I didn't argue with him." The officer said he smelled marijuana and searched Sanders' car. When he found one marijuana seed on the floor, he arrested him. Sanders pleaded guilty to possession and got 30 days in jail. [continues 786 words]
Five Quebecers Arrested; Smuggled About 300 Pounds of Marijuana a Day into United States, Authorities Say Authorities in the United States say they have broken up a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring that has been smuggling marijuana into the U.S. from Quebec and Ontario. Police say the ring leader was [redacted] Agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Sarti on June 17 in Vermont. This week indictments were handed down against 12 suspects authorities said were members of [redacted] network from Ontario, Quebec, Boston and Florida. [continues 260 words]
Cops Keep Eye On Street Gangs; Several Groups Could Take Over Drug Trade With the Hells Angels off the street, police are worried Montreal's increasingly powerful street gangs will start filling the void. Surete du Quebec Chief Inspector Jocelyn Latulipe told reporters yesterday that police are keeping a watch on other gangs that might step forward to replace the Hells Angels. "What I can say is that there are many types of criminal intelligence from various police forces (that) attempt to keeps tabs on the various territories. To say who would take over, we can't actually target a group in particular. [continues 380 words]
Roundup 'Wipes Hells Off Map' - Prosecutor When about 2,000 police officers targeted 156 Hells Angels and their associates from across Quebec yesterday, what they were really doing was indulging in some belated spring cleaning. Eight years after investigators stormed the barricades of the Hells Angels-affiliated Nomads and swept up 139 outlaw bikers in what came to be known as Operation Springtime 2001, police finally have finished the job. By cracking down yesterday on the 111 full-patch Hells Angels left in Quebec, plus 45 associate gang members, police have essentially eradicated the five remaining Quebec chapters of the world's most powerful outlaw biker gang. [continues 590 words]
Promoter Is Former Alcohol And Drug Addict; His Private Foundation Would Run Program A proposed addiction rehab centre - to be run by a recovering addict who's under indictment on fraud charges and whose brother was shot in August in an attempted underworld hit - came under attack yesterday from neighbours who claimed the centre could attract more crime to the area. About 80 residents of southside Notre Dame de Grace showed up at a public meeting at St. Raymond de Pennafort Church on St. Jacques St. complaining that the centre will worsen the serious drug and alcoholism problems in the neighbourhood. [continues 679 words]
Social Club Was HQ For Mob Bosses: Files A small St. Leonard cafe was the headquarters and the centre of money distribution for Montreal's top five Italian Mafia bosses, who took a cut of every drug-trafficking and illegal-gambling dollar made by their gang members, according to court documents. The cafe is a modest, sparsely furnished storefront business where an elderly Italian gentleman makes an excellent espresso allonge. But police allege that for years some of Montreal's - and indeed Canada's - - most powerful underworld figures made this coffee bar the centre of their criminal empire. [continues 1926 words]
RCMP Took Cash From Basement Hiding Spot During its three-year investigation of the Italian Mafia in Montreal, the RCMP secretly broke into cars, homes and safes of alleged drug dealers and bookmakers, seizing millions of dollars in cash and sowing dissent and confusion among gangsters that almost led to a homicide. On the night of Sept. 14, 2006, the RCMP, acting on a search warrant, broke into a Laval home belonging to the parents of a suspected drug trafficker and seized $2.9 million. [continues 699 words]
RCMP Kept Eye On Consenza Social Club. Bugs, Video Catch The Bosses Counting Money And Agonizing Over Which Luxury Car To Buy Kidnappings, murders, drug deals, grasping wives and painful hair transplants are all part of an Italian Mafia lifestyle described in court documents recently unsealed in Quebec Superior Court. The documents relate how Mafia bosses met regularly at their headquarters, the Consenza Social Club at 4891 Jarry St. E., where runners brought them huge amounts of packaged cash. The RCMP bugged and videotaped the inside of the club. The photos and recordings show [continues 889 words]
After Tip From U.S. Customs, RCMP Follow Shipment To Local Company's Warehouse Call it the case of the tapeworm-killing cocaine. The RCMP are baffled by a mysterious shipment of 300 kilograms of cocaine laced with heavy doses of a chemical additive used by veterinarians to kill tapeworms in domestic animals. "We don't know if it's dangerous to humans, but it shows you just don't know what's in illegal drugs," RCMP Cpl. Luc Bessette told The Gazette. [continues 899 words]
Every harvest, he sees strange miniature crop circles in his cornfields that anybody but a seasoned farmer might believe were put there by aliens. The circles are staggered evenly along endless rows of withering feed-corn stalks. They are evidence of Quebec's most profitable cash crop: marijuana. "By the time I get to my field (usually in mid-October), the marijuana plants are long gone," he says. "They cut it just after the first frost." Like every farmer interviewed for this story, he didn't want his real name used. Too many farmers have been threatened, shot at or seen equipment vandalized by what they believe to be pot growers. [continues 1126 words]
Alain Berthiaume Consumes, Sells and Extols Weed - and He Goes To Jail Montrealer Alain Berthiaume worships at the altar of the marijuana ministry. He uses cannabis religiously and believes that you should, too. "I smoke it all day long and I'm able to function," he says. "I'm a ganja man." Taking out a thumb-sized cannabis bud from a plastic Ziploc bag, he offers a sniff. It emits a sweet, fruity aroma. He says with the appreciation of a connoisseur that it's the Shikasberry variety from Alberta. [continues 694 words]
Nationwide, Pot Growers Piggyback on Farmers' Fields MONTREAL -- Every harvest, he sees strange miniature crop circles in his corn fields that anybody but a seasoned farmer might believe had been put there by aliens. The circles, spaced evenly along endless rows of withering feed-corn stalks, are evidence of Quebec's most profitable cash crop -- marijuana. "By the time I get to my field (usually in mid-October), the marijuana plants are long gone," he says. "They cut it just after the first frost." [continues 429 words]
Valued at $1b, Marijuana Most Profitable Cash Crop MONTREAL -- Every harvest, he sees strange miniature crop circles in his corn fields that anybody but a seasoned farmer might believe were put there by aliens. The circles, staggered evenly along endless rows of withering feed-corn stalks, are evidence of Quebec's most profitable cash crop: marijuana. "By the time I get to my field (usually in mid-October), the marijuana plants are long gone," he says. "They cut it just after the first frost." [continues 598 words]
Elite Members To Be Sentenced Monday. Amount Reflects Cocaine And Hashish Profits Funnelled Through Account In 2000, Court Told Crown prosecutors will seek $11 million in fines against two top Hells Angels recently convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and gangsterism. Prosecutors claim the amount reflects drug-trafficking profits earned in 2000 by Walter (Nurget) Stadnick, 51, and Donald (Pup) Stockford, 42. Prosecutors will also seek forfeiture of the convicted men's homes, vehicles, furniture and jewelry, and a total of $34,000 in cash. Their homes are in their spouses' names. But the Crown will claim these are just fronts. [continues 443 words]
