CROOKED COP SCARED INTO NEW CRIMES: DEFENCE

RCMP Agent Pretended to Be Drug Lord to Threaten Montreal Officer,
Court Told

Former Montreal police officer Pierre Goulet was tricked into thinking
a Colombian drug cartel suspected him of betraying the cocaine
smuggling network he had worked for, his defence lawyer said yesterday.

Because of this, Gerald Souliere argued in Quebec Court, Goulet feared
for his life and took part in new crimes during a RCMP sting
operation, which otherwise he wouldn't have done.

Goulet pleaded guilty in June to two counts of transporting the
proceeds of crime and four counts of possession of proceeds of crime.
Goulet brought more than $1 million across the U.S. border for his
childhood friend Bernard Mondou, who was using the money to buy
hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombian drug lord Elias
Cobos-Munoz. Goulet carried the money during a series of trips between
Feb. 1, 2000, and Jan. 31, 2002, flashing his police badge when he
arrived at customs.

In 2004, Cobos-Munoz was arrested in Florida along with several other
people in Operation Manatee, a major U.S. investigation of cocaine
smuggling. Mondou and a small group of Quebecers were also arrested.

Goulet went completely unnoticed during Operation Manatee. But in
2004, a wealthy Quebec drug trafficker named Daniel Muir, Mondou's
partner, was murdered in downtown Mont-

real. While the Montreal police investigated the homicide, an
investigator recognized Goulet as being part of Muir's and Mondou's
entourage.

The investigation was turned over to the RCMP. They used a double
agent who called himself Ricardo and pretended people tied to the
Colombian cartel were wondering why Goulet, an active police officer,
was never was caught in Operation Manatee. The double agent wanted
Goulet to prove he wasn't a rat and asked him to commit crimes like
laundering $20,000 in drug money.

Terrified, Goulet only did what the double agent asked him to in order
to survive, Souliere told Judge Myrian Chevalier at the Montreal courthouse.

"If I want to get out some day, is that okay?" Goulet asked the double
agent at one point of the investigation. "What is important to me is
that I survive."

Souliere suggested Goulet had no interest in taking part in organized
crime at that point in his life and made the trips between 2000 and
2002 to help his childhood friend, while pocketing an estimated $70,000.

Souliere recommended that Goulet be sentenced to between 16 and 18
months in prison and asked Chevalier to consider the possibility of a
suspended sentence. The Crown is seeking a three-year term.

Mondou, 42, was originally sentenced to 135 months for his role in
Operation Manatee after pleading guilty in a Florida court.

Mondou, 42, was expected to testify against Goulet if his friend's
case went to trial. Shortly after Goulet pleaded guilty, Mondou's
sentence was reduced to 90 months

Chevalier is to sentence Goulet on Oct. 2.