EX-MOUNTIE SENT TO JAIL FOR BETRAYAL

Former Penticton cop handed two-year term for role in theft of marijuana
and for helping drug dealer avoid police raids

KELOWNA - A Penticton Mountie who accepted money from drug dealers in
exchange for police information was jailed for two years Tuesday.

Former Const. Mark Webb, who pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana for the
purposes of trafficking and obstructing justice, asked for house arrest by
way of a conditional sentence.

But Judge Brian Weddell said RCMP officers "face a different yardstick"
than ordinary citizens and imposed the jail term.

"(RCMP) officers are people of integrity and trustworthiness. When such a
person engages in criminal activity, it strikes at the very fabric of this
country," the judge said. "A conditional sentence is inadequate to express
the heinousness of this offence."

Webb's former partner Const. Terry Jacklin said incarceration is the
deterrence Webb needed.

"You trust your life with your fellow officers," he said. "You try to
achieve the same goal. After he leaves the office, the goal is changed."

Webb's wife tearfully handed him an overnight bag before he joined the
sheriff to go to the courthouse cells.

The couple has a young child. Jacklin said it's "interesting" that Webb's
wife became pregnant soon after his arrest in 1999.

"It may entice the court to be lenient," Jacklin said.

Webb, 32, was a member of the RCMP's plainclothes division in the summer of
1998 when he took part in a charade with Penticton drug dealers so he could
confiscate 13.5 kilograms of marijuana and return it later for cash.

He arranged with Norman Melcoski to steal the pot from Ryan Brown in a gas
station parking lot. Brown showed up with three garbage bags of pot in his
car trunk as Melcoski carried a bag of paper that Brown believed was
$90,000 cash.

When Brown popped open his trunk, Webb drove up in an unmarked police car,
flashed his badge and ordered Brown into his car. He sent Melcoski away
before he seized the three bags of pot and put them in his vehicle. He told
Brown he would give him a break in exchange for information in future and
let him go.

Webb stored the pot in his Summerland home and gave it days later to Shaun
Sunduk. Brown, desperate to make amends with his supplier, unknowingly
bought the same pot for more than $50,000. Sunduk gave Webb $11,000 for his
help in the theft, which he deposited in his bank account and used to pay
down a debt.

Brown later learned of the ripoff and blew the whistle on Webb when
arrested for an unrelated drug offence. The charge was dropped in exchange
for his evidence.

A few months later, Webb tipped off Sunduk that police were about to raid
his marijuana grow operation on Naramata Road. When officers moved in, they
found pot-growing equipment but no plants, which had been moved out in a hurry.

Police were outraged when they found out Webb had leaked news of the drug raid.

"We could have been set up," said Jacklin. "He could have put himself in a
position so he wouldn't go in the door. There are many ways to booby-trap a
marijuana grow op."

When Webb later investigated a Crime Stoppers tip that Sunduk was growing
pot at another residence, he cancelled it, suggesting there was nothing there.

In April 1999, he told Sunduk police were about to use an infrared gun that
traces the heat generated from marijuana grow lights and suggested turning
them off. Police found nothing and Sunduk paid Webb $1,000.

Like Brown, Sunduk received immunity from prosecution in exchange for his
evidence.

Webb's motive was greed, said Crown counsel Duncan Campbell. He planned his
crimes over a long period, betrayed his fellow officers and thwarted police
efforts to crack down on the growing number of marijuana operations in
Penticton.

Webb apologized to his former colleagues and the court. He has quit the
RCMP and is now making $19,000 a year - a third of his former salary, said
his lawyer David Martin. He's a "kind young man," but naive, Martin said.

Webb will be incarcerated in a secure facility that will keep him away from
the general prison population.