COCAINE WAS BOUND FOR OTTAWA: INFORMANT

Smuggling Of Drugs Worth Millions Foiled, Trial Hears

A convicted drug trafficker-turned-police informant, testifying
yesterday at the trial of an Aylmer man, described how an
international drug-smuggling ring tried to bring millions of dollars
worth of cocaine to Ottawa.

Richard Thibault, 48, is charged with importing and conspiring to
traffic millions of dollars worth of drugs that were bound for Ottawa.
He faces five counts of conspiracy to import a controlled substance,
conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance, conspiracy to import
a controlled substance as part of a criminal organization, conspiracy
to traffic in a controlled substance as part of a criminal
organization and attempting to import a controlled substance.

An estimated $60 million worth of cocaine shipped from the Caribbean
was seized by the RCMP in Cape Breton in 2002 as part of an
international drug investigation headed by the Kingston RCMP. The
drugs were ordered by a group of dealers in the Outaouais and several
other men were also charged in the investigation.

Federal prosecutor Pierre Lapointe said in his opening statements that
he will show that Mr. Thibault was involved in the smuggling operation.

One of the first witnesses to testify was Sean Callen, a convicted
drug trafficker who became a police informant and infiltrated a group
of Outaouais dealers. He arranged to buy a large boat to transport the
more than 500 kilograms of drugs from the Caribbean to Cape Breton and
helped police track the shipment.

Mr. Callen, a Kingston resident, said he had a series of meetings in
2002 at restaurants in Ottawa, Brockville and Kingston with the men
who wanted to bring a huge shipment of cocaine to Ottawa. He told the
men he had lived in the Caribbean for almost 20 years and had sailed
about 150,000 nautical miles, smuggling drugs to various destinations
in North America.

He told the court the cocaine was coming from Colombia and that one of
the men he had been dealing with here was Rick Rivers, "who ran the
drug scene in the Ottawa area" and was connected to the Hells Angels.
He said he went to Panama to meet some of the main players in the drug
smuggling operation.

Mr. Callen said he eventually found a boat to transport the drugs back
to Canada for $65,000 U.S. He said the Outaouais dealers pressured him
to put up half of the money for the boat, but he told the court
everything he did had to be pre-authorized by the RCMP.

A short video was also played in court showing Mr. Callen, Mr. Rivers
and Normand Denault discussing the drug deal in a Kingston apartment.
The video surveillance tape was made as part of the undercover RCMP
investigation.

The trial continues today.