THREE ACQUITTED OF MARIJUANA CHARGES

Police officer posed as a Purolator delivery person to bring package

KITCHENER - A judge acquitted three people yesterday in a case where a
police officer posed as a Purolator delivery person to bring a package of
marijuana to a Kitchener apartment.

Last March, a cardboard box containing 4.6 kilograms of marijuana, addressed
to a Nancy Lee, was sent to 29 Scenic Dr. in Kitchener. The sender was John
Lee of Vancouver.

Police got a tip and intercepted the parcel at the Purolator office in
Guelph. A plainclothes officer knocked at the apartment door and a man named
Thanh Do, 30, took the parcel. He lied, saying he was John Lee.

Police got a search warrant for the apartment. When they went in, they found
another man standing near a second, unopened, parcel of marijuana, that,
coincidentally, had also arrived that day via Canada Post. That man was Huan
Huu Le, 23, of Waterloo.

Police found the Purolator parcel, also unopened, in a closet.

Justice Margaret Woolcott said there was no evidence proving either of the
two men in the apartment knew what was in the parcels. There was also no
evidence showing those men had any relationship to the woman listed as the
tenant of the apartment, Huong Thi Le, 45.

The judge said she would have found the woman guilty if the Crown had
entered evidence of the value of the marijuana. The Canada Post parcel was
mailed to Le at her address, and the Purolator parcel, although sent to
Nancy Lee, was sent to her address, the judge said.

But she said the Crown needed to enter evidence of the value of the
marijuana to prove the woman knew the contents of the box.

''If there was evidence of a substantial value...I would have found there
could be an inference of knowledge on the part of Miss Le,'' Woolcott said.

Outside court, Le's lawyer, Mark Kerbel, said the judge was going on the
idea that nobody would send a parcel worth a lot of money to a person who
didn't know what it was.

But even Kerbel didn't think the actual value made much difference.

''What we've got is a large quantity of an illicit substance,'' he said.

Last month, the Kitchcner-Waterloo Record was given an estimate of $25,000
to $45,000 for the marijuana in the Purolator box, and $35,000 to $55,000
for the Canada post delivery.

Kerbel said the acquittal was proper, however, for other reasons. He said
there wasn't enough evidence to show ''with any degree of certainty'' that
his client knew what was in the box.

''It's a dangerous thing to start holding other people responsible for the
acts of others,'' he said, suggesting the parcel could have been meant for
Do, for example.

Kerbel said normally, in these types of cases, police wait for a parcel to
be opened and watch to see what's done with it.

But Crown prosecutor Greg Murdoch said it's ''a tricky call'' for police to
know when to go in. If they wait too long, the box may disappear, he said
outside court.

He is considering an appeal of the acquittal. He believes the high value of
the marijuana can be inferred just by the penal consequence that comes with
a conviction for possession for the purpose of trafficking. A convicted
person could be sent to prison, he said.