HEMP ADVOCATE BUSTED

Store Owner On Bail When Cop Stumbled On Alleged Drug Deal

A downtown businessman charged in July with trafficking following the
largest seizure of money in a drug raid in Windsor history has been
busted again.

Nick Minardi, 42, was free on bail and working in his shop Dec. 27
when a plainclothes drug unit officer entered to serve him with court
papers, only to witness, police allege, an illegal drug sale.

Windsor police Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton said the officer arrested
Minardi and seized "several" marijuana plants and 186 grams of bagged
pot worth an estimated street value of $3,700. Also seized, said
McNorton, was $7,700 in Canadian and $1,373 in U.S. currency located
in a cardboard box, as well as a bag containing $1,600 in Canadian
coins.

McNorton said a search three days later uncovered a further $16,000 in
Canadian currency and a little over $800 US. The money included $2,300
found in a running shoe and $4,500 in a pair of rolled up jeans,
McNorton said.

A bail hearing is set for Thursday for Minardi, who is charged with
breaking his bail conditions and drug trafficking. He has been in
custody since Dec. 27.

Last July 8, police arrested Minardi following a raid on Harvest Moon
that netted a record $240,000 in cash seizures, as well as pot and
mushrooms with an estimated street value of about $149,000.

A preliminary inquiry on trafficking and five other criminal charges
stemming from that case is set for June 1. Federal prosecutor Richard
Pollock said Monday "it's possible" the new charges will be folded
into a single prosecution.

Minardi sat in the prisoner's box crying last July when his brother
and sister put up a $20,000 surety allowing him to go free on bail.
He'd been in jail nearly two weeks since that last arrest, and part of
his release condition was to check in with police weekly and allow
them to conduct random checks.

The entrepreneur was soon back in business, but he told The Star at
the time that he was no longer selling drugs. He explained the large
quantity of cash by saying he didn't trust banks.

In that interview, Minardi said he saw himself as a reluctant activist
taking a stand against marijuana prohibition.

He said he believed his pot sales were de facto legal and thus
tolerated by the authorities, and that for almost three years he had
been remitting 15 per cent in tax from the sale of marijuana, which he
rings through his store till, to the federal and provincial
governments.

Authorities said Minardi was convicted in 1995 for selling marijuana,
which resulted in a sentence of two years less a day for production
and trafficking -- in the process forfeiting a motorcycle, 5,775 grams
of marijuana and $32,000 in cash.

Pollock said the Crown will argue Thursday that Minardi should be
denied bail.

As in last July's raid, when the police executed a search warrant Dec.
30, they discovered a pit bull in the premises which was removed by
the humane society.

Minardi's lawyer could not be reached for comment Monday.