CONDITIONS TO BE VARIED

POT BATTLE: High profile culture shop owners may soon return to
Herridge Lane store busted earlier this summer.

Holy Smoke Culture Shop co-owners Paul DeFelice and Alan Middlemiss
will have to wait a little longer for their day in court.

Sporting his customary dreads and a smile on his face, DeFelice
sauntered up to Nelson courthouse Tuesday morning where he was met by
his lawyer Donald Skogstad and told his bail conditions would be
varied within a few days.

"It turned out that it wasn't a first appearance to enter pleas or
anything like that. We didn't even have to appear," said DeFelice "Our
lawyer and prosecution have already worked out something and
apparently we have to sign something in a couple of days and then
after that our only condition of bail is not to knowingly be in the
presence of marijuana."

The original conditions did not allow DeFelice to be within 50 metres
of the Holy Smoke store and did not permit Middlemiss to have any
contact with DeFelice or any other employees of the culture shop.

DeFelice said he was not even happy with that condition, but he
realized that he was not left with a lot of choice about it.

"I reluctantly agreed. I think the original conditions were just
absurd," said DeFelice, calling the conditions a "punishment."

DeFelice, who was arrested July 15, expected to make his first
appearance Tuesday - along with Middlemiss - on charges of two counts
of trafficking in a controlled substance. His business partner and
best friend, Middlemiss turned himself in August 16 upon hearing there
was a warrant for his arrest and is also charged with two counts of
trafficking in a controlled substance.

Skogstad explained outside the Nelson courthouse that Nelson City
police hired police officers from municipal police forces in an
undercover operation. Three of those officers are Constables Herbert,
Fairburn, and Martin. The first names of the officers were withheld by
police.

"To go that far. There's RCMP in Kamloops or maybe even Cranbrook they
could use and they went to municipal. They went a long way," explained
Skogstad.

DeFelice questioned the police's actions in hiring the
officers.

"They were paid per diems. They were put up in hotel rooms. They were
flown here from the coast all at great expense. Since it's municipal
this is the Nelson taxpayers paying for this," said DeFelice.

Nelson City Police Sgt. Steve Bank confirmed that four undercover
police officers we brought in to participate in the
investigation.

"It was a two-phased, eight-day operation involving four undercover
operators from Oak Bay, Victoria, Vancouver, and Abbotsford police
departments," said Bank, adding that the operation targeted alleged
drug trafficking in Nelson generally but specifically targeted
licensed premises, street-traffickers, trafficking from residences,
dial-a-dope operations and the Holy Smoke Culture Shop.

"If they're undercover operators, obviously we have to bring somebody
in that's not going to be recognized. We're a municipal department so
we utilized the resources that we have available to us through the
municipal undercover pool."

Bank, who could not provide the names of the other individuals
arrested or establishments targeted, confirmed that the city of Nelson
is footing the bill for the operation but said he does not yet know
how much it cost.

He added the Nelson City Police have used RCMP resources in the past,
but chose to use municipal resources this time. When asked if an
exchange of police resources might be involved, Bank said he would not
disclose that information to the public.

'The cost of bringing in the RCMP, it's six of one, half dozen the
other. We're a municipal force. We're part of this pool for undercover
operators so it makes sense to use them," he said. "I don't know if
there's a difference in the cost. Its pretty expensive because of
wages and such and to be honest, I don't know what the bottom line [in
terms of] costing is going to be on this operation until we've dealt
with the wages."

DeFelice and Middlemiss are scheduled to appear in court October 3 and
November 7 respectively.

"They could have walked in any time and talked to people. I don't know
why they had to do an undercover sting operation to make themselves
look good," said DeFelice.

"We're supposed to be okay with this. I'll never be okay with this."