INMATE RAN DRUGS FROM JAIL

30-Year-Old Convicted, Sentenced to 61/2 Years in Prison

An inmate convicted of running a nearly $1-million drug trafficking
operation from his Windsor Jail cell was sentenced to 61/2 years in
prison Thursday.

Ontario court Justice Guy DeMarco said Mazin Odish flouted the law
and the administration of justice by pursuing his criminal career behind bars.

The sentence will be served consecutively to an 81/2-year-term Odish
is serving on drug and weapons charges.

Odish, 30, pleaded guilty last week to five counts of drug
trafficking and conspiracy to import or export methamphetamine and
ecstasy in the summer of 2006. He also pleaded guilty to charges of
uttering threats to cause bodily harm.

DeMarco said Odish has a long criminal record and the sentence must
consider that an aggravating factor, mitigated only by his guilty
plea. In a separate case, Odish was convicted of fraud last October.

Federal prosecutor Richard Pollock said Odish, who was already in
custody, pleaded guilty June 8, 2006, to multiple counts of drug and
weapons trafficking. He was held pending sentence Sept. 29.

But detectives with the Windsor detachment of the RCMP did not end
their investigation of Odish's drug trafficking with his arrest and
detention. Court authorization was granted in July to intercept his
private communications over a 60-day period from jail.

"Intercepted private telephone communications between the accused and
his confederates disclose extensive co-ordination of persons and the
ordering and movement of ecstasy and methamphetamine originating in
Toronto for export to the United States via the Windsor (border)
crossing," said Pollock.

Pollock said Odish was one of the primary co-ordinators of the
transactions and directed the movement of drugs and money using
telephones at Windsor Jail.

Pollock said the conspiracy comprised about 15 suspects, including
several members of the Odish family and some young offenders.

Wiretaps showed that in one transaction, Odish helped co-ordinate the
movement of $20,000 to a Toronto drug supplier and that subsequently
orders were placed for the delivery of 40,000 ecstasy tablets.

On July 15, drugs with a street value estimated at $400,000, were
seized by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officers.

In total, the value of drugs moved through the conspiracy had a
street value of $880,000, Pollock said.

Odish and other conspirators were also overheard using threats of
violence to recover missing drug money from U.S. buyers, Pollock
said. Odish said of one customer that he would "burn him and his
family" and "have his legs broken."

When drugs went missing in another deal with an American woman, Odish
is heard threatening to "send someone to scare her so that she'll pay."

Pollock said that throughout the intercepts, Odish was referred to by
name or by his alias, "murder."

Charges against the other alleged conspirators are outstanding.

MADE COMPLAINT

During the time Mazin Odish was running drugs from jail, he appeared
before a judge to ask for increased sentencing credit because of poor
conditions suffered by inmates, prosecutor Richard Pollock said in an
interview. Odish complained that he picked up a severe rash while
doing time there, Pollock said.