Trafficking probe led to drugs stashed at local church

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This article was published 09/11/2016 (3469 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Illegal drugs including cocaine — brought to Manitoba for distribution as part of a large-scale drug trafficking network — were stashed in an abandoned church just down the block from the Brandon courthouse.

Those allegations and others are detailed in publicly available court documents filed in an effort to freeze the primary suspect’s assets.

They describe how police used tactics such as tracers, bugs and sneak peeks into homes during an investigation into a drug operation that brought kilograms of illegal drugs into the Brandon area for distribution.

Details of the investigation are contained in civil court documents that were filed in court by the province’s Director of Criminal Property and Forfeiture as it sought to freeze funds, and prevent the sale of real estate and other property belonging to the main suspect in the case and his wife.

An interim order to that effect was granted in Winnipeg Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday.

What follows are allegations based on civil court documents. They are not criminal allegations, and haven’t been proven in court. The accused are presumed innocent.

A statement of claim asserts that large amounts of illegal drugs were brought to the Brandon area by couriers.

They were taken to an apartment and an abandoned church in Brandon, and a farm near Griswold, where they were stored, processed, repackaged and distributed to others including drug dealers.

The elaborate police investigation focusing on two men is detailed in an affidavit, written by an official with the province’s Civil Law Division Criminal Property Forfeiture.

It states that in January 2016, members of the Manitoba Integrated Organized Crime Task Force (MIOCTF) began Project Derringer, which targeted a drug network and one particular Brandon-area man who was their primary suspect in the operation.

Police placed the man on surveillance, attached tracking devices to his vehicles and tracked his cellphone.

As a result, police believed they had identified the man’s drug customers and a Toronto “courier” — a man they believed to be supplying him with multi-kilogram amounts of cocaine.

Investigators planted tracking devices on the courier’s car, tracked his cellphone, and followed his movements using his credit card use.

During the months that followed, police observed the courier and prime suspect meet at a gas station, then a hotel parking lot in Brandon.

Vehicle and cellphone trackers also led police to believe the men had met near a Griswold farm where the main suspect lived.

Police believed the meetings were drug deals and they video-recorded a meeting at a hotel parking lot, during which they observed the two men exchange large bags.

Investigators also located “stash” locations in Brandon. One was an apartment on the 100 block of 10th Street, while the other was the former First Baptist Church at 1037 Lorne Ave.

Police obtained warrants that allowed them to do “covert entries/surreptitious searches” at the church and apartment. They also hid cameras at those locations.

Those strategies allowed them to track the transport of drugs and equipment that would ultimately lead to a raid of the Griswold-area farm.

In August, they entered the 10th Street apartment and found a hydraulic press contaminated with cocaine and a cutting agent (benzocaine). They also found scales, grinders and packaging materials.

No drugs were found that time, but electronic surveillance tipped off investigators to another meeting between the courier and main suspect near the Griswold farm. The courier was seen placing at least one bag into the back of the other man’s truck.

Based on that, police returned for further sneak peeks inside the apartment. During one visit they found four kilograms of vacuum-sealed cocaine with a street value of $260,000. Two bricks of cocaine were marked with a Nike stamp and numbered.

Also in the apartment was four pounds of marijuana with a street value of $8,000, and two pounds of psilocybin worth $4,000.

Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound often known as psilocybin mushrooms.

Later, the main target of the investigation was seen moving the drugs and hydraulic press to the church. A covert entry into the church turned up the two kilograms marked with the Nike logo, seven more ounces of cocaine (including one pressed into a “puck”), bags of psilocybin and equipment.

About a week later, the suspect moved the press and drugs to the Griswold farm.

In mid-September, police ramped up their investigation.

They secured warrants to intercept hundreds of communications from the suspect’s cellphone, and planted listening devices in his vehicles and in a machine shed at his farm.

Police allege that they captured messages or calls that showed the man dealing in cocaine and marijuana with customers.

Another covert search at the farm led to the discovery of six guns — a semi-automatic rifle, two shotguns and three rifles — in the trunk of a car.

Then, intercepted communications and tracking of his phone and credit card told police that the Toronto courier was going to make another trip to Manitoba.

On Oct. 13, investigators were video-recording as the courier and suspect met once more near the Griswold farm.

Intercepted communications and the audio bug inside the suspect’s truck seemed to confirm it was a drug deal.

The two men travelled to the farm where members of the Brandon Police Service Tactical Response Unit arrested them as they sat in the truck discussing the drug deal.

Police then searched the property and vehicles that were parked there, including the courier’s 2012 Audi Q7.

In the truck they found a jacket with $20,000 to $25,000 cash in the pocket and about 359 grams of marijuana in a shoebox.

On the suspects or inside the truck, they also found several cellphones believed to be encrypted BlackBerry “PGP” devices.

In another pickup truck, police found a duffel bag that held three kilograms of vacuum-sealed cocaine worth $195,000, one kilogram of methamphetamine worth $55,000 and a rifle.

They found the hydraulic press in a machine shed on the property with scales, grinders and packaging materials. Also in the shed was one of the numbered kilograms of cocaine marked with the Nike logo that was found earlier at the church and Brandon apartment.

In a U-Haul vehicle also at the farm was a money counter and two packages of marijuana with a total weight of one pound.

There was one more interesting find — in the courier’s Audi, police found a hidden compartment believed to be used to conceal drugs for transport.

Leslie Gerald Bisson, of Griswold, is charged with offences related to drug trafficking and weapons. He currently remains in custody.

Javed Ali of Georgetown, Ont., who faces six charges related to drug trafficking, has been released on bail to live with his family in Toronto.

Justin Tyler Reimer, of Brandon, is also charged with drug and weapon offences. He too remains in custody.

On Tuesday, as Project Derringer continued, RCMP announced that they and MIOCTF made an arrest and performed two other searches in Dauphin. They seized an undisclosed amount of cash.

Christopher Charles Bilay, 32, is charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, conspiracy to traffic a controlled substance, and possession of proceeds of crime.

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