RCMP TRICKED ME INTO THAI DRUG BUY

'Relentless Pressure': Montrealer Jailed for Eight Years Sues Mounties for
$47.4m

MONTREAL - In the eyes of one undercover RCMP officer, Alain Olivier was a
"low-life doper" back in the late 1980s, "not much of a player" in the
heroin trade. He was a junkie with "a nose problem," a police informant who
dealt with Mr. Olivier confirmed.

But somehow this addict who was always short of cash became the focus of a
major international RCMP drug sting that ended up costing the life of one
Mountie and putting Mr. Olivier in a decrepit Thai prison for eight years.

Yesterday, Mr. Olivier's lawyers went before the Quebec Superior Court to
significantly amend a lawsuit the Montreal man initially filed in 2000.
Back in Canada since 1997 and out on parole since 1998, he has increased
his claim to $47.4-million from $27.5-million, arguing he was the victim of
entrapment.

"This was a willful and intentional breach of fundamental human rights,"
Reevin Pearl, one of Mr. Olivier's lawyers, said after a news conference
yesterday.

Known as Operation Deception, the 1989 RCMP sting in Thailand became big
news back home when Corporal Derek Flanagan, working undercover, toppled
from a truck and died during the botched bust in the city of Chiang Mai.

Mr. Olivier, now 44, was arrested for his role in arranging the drug
purchase and initially sentenced by a Thai court to death by firing squad.
His sentence was reduced to life in prison after he agreed to plead guilty
and, in 1997, Thai authorities transferred him to Canadian custody.

According to the new declaration filed in court, Mr. Olivier would never
have gone to Thailand, and Cpl. Flanagan would still be alive, had it not
been for the "constant and relentless pressure" from an RCMP informant to
conclude the drug deal.

The court documents also contain acknowledgement from the RCMP that it had
confused Mr. Olivier, who had no prior criminal record, with his twin
brother, who had a number of convictions in the early 1980s, including
armed robbery and drug trafficking.

The lawsuit contends that this mistake, combined with false information
provided by an informant named Glen Barry (also known as Jean-Marie
Leblanc), led the Mounties to believe Mr. Olivier was a bigger player than
he was.

Mr. Olivier began working for Mr. Barry in 1987 at a fishing charter
operation in Gibsons Landing, B.C. The suit alleges Mr. Barry, who had been
hired by the RCMP to feed them information for Operation Deception,
presented himself as a major criminal involved in drug trafficking and gun
smuggling.

He introduced Mr. Olivier to undercover RCMP officers, saying they were
major underworld figures interested in bringing in heroin from Thailand. At
one point, to enforce the point, one of the undercover officers showed up
to charter a boat with another man. Two days later, the officer returned in
the boat alone, and when Mr. Olivier looked inside the boat, he saw blood
and empty bullet shells. The suit alleges that he was told by Mr. Barry
that the missing man had been shot "because he talked too much."

During a separate criminal trial in 1990, a Vancouver County Court judge
harshly criticized Mr. Barry's conduct as a police informant. "Their
evidence establishes beyond any doubt that Barry seriously abused his
position as a police agent in the small community of Gibsons and virtually
terrorized that community," the judge wrote.

The suit alleges that Mr. Olivier, "a penniless blue-collar worker," agreed
to go along with the planned drug buy because he feared he was dealing with
a group of underworld killers. His plane ticket to Thailand was paid for by
the RCMP, which also supplied the money to make the heroin purchase.

The RCMP has declined to comment on the case while it is before the courts,
but a previously filed defence denies that Mr. Olivier was pressured to
take part in the operation. It says what Mr. Olivier perceived as a murder
aboard the fishing boat was a misunderstanding; the officer in question had
taken a relative fishing and let him off before docking, the defence says.

The police force maintains that Mr. Olivier was a drug dealer and the bust
allowed them and Thai police to identify a source of heroin into Canada.

To Mr. Olivier's complaint that he spent eight years under atrocious
conditions in a Thai prison, the RCMP responded that "prison conditions are
more difficult in Thailand than in Canada," but added that Mr. Olivier
received aid from the Canadian embassy.

Mr. Olivier, who had been working as a stagehand in Montreal until a recent
accident, said yesterday he believes the RCMP toyed with his life. "As a
Canadian citizen, I have the right to see justice done," he said. "That is
why I am fighting, not just for the money."

A trial date has not been scheduled.