'KEYSTONE KOPS' BLOW MARIJUANA DRUG BUST

Judge Throws Out Case after Police Fumble Evidence On Suspects

TORONTO - All charges have been dismissed against four men arrested in what
was the largest marijuana grow-op seizure in Ontario -- because police
could not link evidence from the raid to any specific defendant.

Justice Ford Clements dismissed a series of trafficking charges against
four Vietnamese men arrested in November 2002 when more than 9,500
marijuana plants were discovered in an industrial building in Mississauga.

It is rare for a judge to discharge defendants after a preliminary hearing.
The prosecution must only show there is "evidence upon which a reasonable
jury properly instructed could return a verdict of guilty" to continue to
trial. Judge Clements ruled Friday, however, that there was no evidence to
show a "rational inference" any of the four men had control of the building.

The marijuana plants, with a street value of $11 million, filled about
30,000 square feet on two floors of the warehouse. The seizure by Peel
Regional police was the largest in the province until earlier this year,
when more than 25,000 plants were discovered in a former Molson brewery
building in Barrie.

The four defendants in the Mississauga seizure were arrested as they were
leaving the front office section of the warehouse. Police also seized seven
sets of keys from the four men.

During the preliminary hearing this summer, the court heard that at least
one of the keys opened the office, but there was no evidence the keys
opened the back area where the marijuana was located.

The exhibits officer in the investigation admitted that some of the sets of
keys were mixed together by Peel police.

"They couldn't keep straight which keys belonged to each accused," said
criminal lawyer Peter Zaduk, who represented one of the defendants.

One officer testified that the keys were thrown together on the passenger
side of a police car when the four men were arrested. Some keys were kept
in an unsealed envelope in a desk at the police station, court heard.

"Pardon the pun, but they were the Keystone Kops," said lawyer Heather
McArthur, who also represented one of the defendants. "We don't know who
owned each key chain or if the keys opened the back part of the warehouse."