6 YEARS IN JAIL FOR DRUG KINGPIN

Kanata Dad Pleads Guilty, Forfeits $200Gs In Assets

The kingpin of one of the region's largest narcotic networks made an
emotional apology yesterday before being sentenced to six years in prison
and being forced to hand over $200,000 in assets.

After pleading guilty to seven of the 148 drug-related charges against him,
Ronald Trempe criticized police and the media for what they had done to his
family.

Trempe was busted last July after a seven-month joint-forces drug sting,
dubbed Project Cape, in which Trempe and two of his local associates were
targeted. The project netted 55 arrests, including Trempe's wife Marianne
Sloan, more than $800,000 in drugs, stolen property and cash along with 27
firearms.

Charges against Sloan, 49, were dropped yesterday after her husband pleaded
guilty to three counts of conspiring to traffic cocaine and one count each
of proceeds of crime, income tax evasion, conspiring to cultivate marijuana
and money laundering.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, federal Crown prosecutor Ann
Alder told the court that Trempe bought about 10 kg of cocaine from
Montreal middleman Richard Clarke, who was also sentenced to six years in
prison last November.

Trempe then sold the coke to local drug pushers as well as dealers in Hamilton.

FATHER OF THREE

Wire taps and surveillance on the Kanata father of three also showed that
he was looking for land to grow marijuana.

After one of Clarke's associates was stopped by police in early July 2000
on Hwy. 417 and had cocaine in his car seized, Alder told court that Trempe
got nervous.

"I don't think they know about you and me," Clarke told Trempe during one
of their intercepted conversations.

When Trempe expressed concern about police obtaining phone records, Clarke
told him, "they aren't that smart."

Two weeks later police raided dozens of houses and businesses, including
Trempe's Kanata home at 5 a.m.

Describing the scene in his home that morning, Trempe told the court that
his four-year-old daughter hasn't been able to sleep in her room since she
was confronted by an officer who was carrying a machine gun. "I know that
what happened to my kids I'm responsible for," he said, noting that police
could have handled it differently.

He also criticized police for telling the media that he was a dealer for
the Hells Angels.

NO BIKER LINK

"In my 43 years of life, I have never met a Hells Angel," he said. Trempe
said his intentions were good and he wanted to raise capital for business
ventures, so his children would not have to worry about money.

Alder said that Revenue Canada calculated that Trempe failed to claim about
$400,000 in income between 1995 and 1999. He was fined $119,360 for income
tax evasion and given no time to pay with a six-month concurrent jail
sentence as a consequence of failing to pay.