POLICE SHOULD ADMIT WHEN THEY'RE WRONG: DEFENCE LAWYER

Personal Property Seized In February Drug Raid Returned To Owners

TRURO - Police should be prepared to admit they are wrong if a drug
bust doesn't produce charges against all the individuals initially
targeted, a Murray Siding couple and their lawyer say.

"They have great fanfare when they make these big drug busts and if
and when they fall apart you never hear a word saying, 'Oops, we made
a mistake,'" said defence lawyer Al Begin. "And it is very
unfortunate for those who are caught in this web."

In mid-February, the owners of Wilson Mountain Hydroponics were
implicated in a wide-sweeping drug bust that resulted in charges
being laid against a number of local individuals.

The bust involved both the RCMP and Truro Police Service and was
described at the time by Truro chief David MacNeil as being a
"significant seizure and a significant disruption of an organized crime group."

A picture of the couple's property also appeared the following day on
the front page of the Truro Daily News after a reporter discovered
police involved in the operation at that location.

While some individuals have already pled guilty to various
drug-related offences from the bust and others are still to appear
before the courts, the owners of Wilson Mountain Hydroponics were
never charged. Last week, a provincial court judge agreed to a
request by Begin to have property seized in the raid returned to his clients.

The documents involved cancelled cheques, sales receipt books, power
bills, telephone bills and other related material, Begin said.

"A lot of paper work that involved their legitimate, legal and
above-board hydroponics business," he said, adding the only thing
that has yet to be returned is the couple's computer.

Begin said his clients, who do not want to be identified by name,
"have absolutely no concern about anything inappropriate or illegal
being on their computer."

"They're all legal supplies," he said, adding that such equipment is
also purchased by people who do not use it for illegitimate purposes.

"They make it seem like some big organized crime ring and we're in
the middle of it," one of the cleared individuals said. "I want it to
be known that on that day, that they didn't dismantle any marijuana
grow operation at our house, they didn't get any drugs, cocaine,
money, guns. They took paper, is what they got from us."

Although MacNeil did not want to discuss specific charges or
individuals, he described the raids in question as part of an ongoing
"complex file, complex investigation" that police continue to feel
was generally a success.

"We did our job, we did our case and whatever happens in the courts
happens," he said. "There were 10 or 12 residences that were raided
over the course of the file, not all on one day ... and out of those
we did seize weapons, we did seize drugs and we did seize money. And
we did make a significant dent in the drug trade in Colchester."

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Mark Gallagher also said he could not speak of
the specifics of the case because he was not familiar with what
happened on this particular file.

"Certainly I'd have to find out what happened and why the
circumstances turned out the way they did," he said. "When we ask for
a search warrant, it's all based on information that we feel is reliable."

As far as revealing names and addresses to the media, however,
Gallagher said that is not the practice of the RCMP in such
situations and it is not what happened in this case.

"I disagree with the idea of fanfare because we certainly didn't make
any point of calling the media to tell them we were going to certain
residences," he said.