'THERE'S NO CASE ON ME,' MANAGER FOR RAPPER BELLY SAYS OF TRAFFICKING
CHARGES

It wasn't what Manny Dion had been expecting.

Six o'clock on a Thursday morning, with Toronto police raiding the
apartment where he had spent the night.

"I stayed at a buddy's house and this happened," said Mr. Dion, 28,
when recalling the events of July 31. "Imagine my face when this ...
happened in the morning. It was like, oh, what the hell is going on,
buddy?"

It was all part of Project Cabra -- a series of raids that saw more
than 200 officers execute dozens of search warrants in southwestern
Ontario, and arrest 26 people on drug-related charges.

In total, police seized 31 kilograms of cocaine, six kilograms of
heroin, four kilograms of ecstacy, two kilograms of crystal meth and
five kilograms of marijuana, 18 cars, three houses and $400,000 cash
in the associated raids.

"It's crazy," said Mr. Dion, manager for the Ottawa-based rapper
Belly. "Wrong place, wrong time."

Where Mr. Dion was staying, however, police found very little of what
they were looking for: Eleven ecstacy pills, a few grams of heroin and
hashish, and just under a gram of marijuana.

It was, as Det. Sgt. John DeCourcy of the drug squad put it, a "fairly
small" stash.

Nobody in the apartment admitted ownership, but they still booked Mr.
Dion with two counts of possession for the purposes of trafficking --
one for the marijuana and one for the hash.

"They raided the house, I was in there and that's it," Mr. Dion
said.

"They found something in the house, not on me. There's no case on
me."

Toronto police say the apartment where he was staying is "associated"
with Deiaeldin Nassar, a 34-year-old man who was allegedly caught
picking up 20 kilograms of cocaine four days before the Project Cabra
raids -- a bust so big, it was qualified as the "arrest of the month"
by the Toronto police 22 Division.

For now, Mr. Dion must wait to defend himself in court. While his
lawyer has told him things will be "cleared up" sooner rather than
later, he said the ordeal has been stressful for him.

But there was still more trouble ahead for Belly and his crew after
the raid in July.

Fifteen days later, the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit, along
with an Ottawa police tactical unit, a K-9 unit and the guns and gangs
unit raided the house in Greely where Belly lives.

The two-storey brick house, with the flashy cars parked in the
driveway, is known to the neighbours as "Belly's House."

Police found three BB guns and a bulletproof vest, all of which were
legal and none of which were seized.

Belly called the search "bull-----." "I don't want to go hard on the
cops," he told the Citizen at the time.

"They were probably just doing their jobs, but I'd like to know about
these tips they're acting on," he said.

Det. Chris Benson, of the weapons unit, told the Citizen yesterday
that the raid in Greely was not related to Project Cabra. It was also
not related to tips originating from Toronto, he said.