MYSTERIOUS CROWN MOVE ERASES DRUG CONVICTIONS

VICTORIA - A criminal case against five convicted drug dealers -- including
those once described as drug "kingpins" -- has been mysteriously dropped in
a move that baffles even the men's lawyers.

The Crown will not divulge the reason behind a move that will see the men,
some serving lengthy prison terms, released.

The five, Ricardo Scarpino, Gustavo Gomez, David Mak, Keith Garbutt and
Mark Hall were convicted in Victoria Provincial Court in 1998 on a variety
of charges of conspiracy to traffic and import cocaine. The convictions
will now be wiped from their records.

"I've never seen anything like it before," said lawyer John Green, who
represented one of the men.

The B.C. Court of Appeal was to have heard the appeal of the men's 1998
convictions this month. But on Tuesday, the Crown asked that the court set
aside the original convictions and order a new trial. It consented. The
Crown then said it would not retry the men, and stayed all the charges.

In a letter to defence lawyers and the court, Crown counsel David Frankel
referred to "information that has recently come to the Crown's attention."

Clark Purves represented Scarpino, a former Langford man who got 12 years.
"It's like my client spent five years in prison for something that never
happened."

The case involves a cocaine-smuggling ring that was busted after a Victoria
courier was arrested with 20 kilograms of cocaine at a U.S. train station
in August 1996.

In a lengthy police probe based largely on tips from confidential
informants and tapped phone calls, Vancouver Island RCMP compiled a case
against seven men. Two pleaded guilty and got three years. The other five
got sentences ranging from three years to 14 years for Gomez, 38, from a
wealthy family in Colombia.