LAWYER CONVICTED OF GANGSTERISM CHARGE

First In Canada. Lawyer Became Involved With Major Dealer Of Cocaine,
Acted As Negotiator, Judge Rules

Even lawyers are not above the law.

That is the message prosecutor Madeleine Giauque said she hoped has
been sent after a Montreal lawyer was found guilty yesterday of
gangsterism, or committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal
organization, in a verdict believed to be a first in Canada.

Louis Pasquin, 49, was also found guilty of conspiring to traffic
cocaine, which carries a maximum life sentence, and two counts of drug
trafficking.

The diminutive lawyer appeared to sink into his chair at the Montreal
courthouse as he awaited a date for sentencing arguments. With his
arms crossed, Pasquin seemed tense when Giauque asked that he and two
other men convicted of similar charges yesterday be taken into custody
immediately. But Quebec Court Judge Carol St. Cyr said bail should
apply until they are sentenced.

Pasquin, a member of the Quebec Bar Association since 1987, is facing
the real possibility of a lengthy prison term.

However, Giauque appeared satisfied with the broader victory when she
spoke to reporters outside the courtroom.

"I think lawyers are not above the law," she said. "They are citizens
like everyone else. But we can't take from this decision that all
lawyers take part in dishonest practices. It is not the majority. Very
much to the contrary." St. Cyr had been deliberating since June after
hearing a complicated trial featuring hundreds of wiretapped
conversations collected during Project Piranha, a S=FBrete du Quebec
investigation.

The police targeted Louis Alain Dauphin, 56, a well-connected drug
trafficker with a penchant for fancy cars, and his vast network of
dealers and customers around Montreal. He is serving the equivalent of
a nine-year prison term after pleading guilty in 2007 to the same
charges Pasquin was convicted of.

Before his arrest, Dauphin was considered one of the biggest drug
dealers in the lower Laurentians. He was friendly with some members of
the Hells Angels and supplied kilos of cocaine to them, but was
independent of the biker gang.

Pasquin was careful when he spoke on the phone to Dauphin and a few of
the other people arrested in Piranha in March 2006. When considered on
their own, his conversations were not incriminating, but the
investigation revealed Pasquin was acting as a middleman for Dauphin
and Michael Russell, 63, a Toronto pilot who is alleged to have flown
kilos of cocaine from British Columbia to Montreal on a regular basis
in 2005.

(To make sure attorney-client privilege wasn't violated during the
wiretapping of Pasquin's phones, SQ investigators had to obtain a
special warrant. They were not allowed to listen to the recordings
until a judge vetted them.) Russell, who has yet to be tried, stayed
at Pasquin's former home in Lachanaie whenever he flew in.

On wiretaps, he often referred to Pasquin's house as "the office."
Pasquin's position during the trial was that he had a professional
relationship with Dauphin and his wife and they eventually became friends.

His lawyer, Pierre Panaccio, offered this as an explanation of their
frequent telephone conversations. Pasquin also claimed Russell was
dating his sister in 2005 when he let the pilot stay at his house.

St. Cyr simply didn't believe Pasquin's version of
events.

"Seen in the light of the entirety of the proof presented, it doesn't
stand up to analysis, is unbelievable and not credible," St. Cyr wrote.

For several weeks at the end of the summer of 2005, Dauphin's cocaine
deals went smoothly. But things fell apart on Oct. 13, 2005, when the
SQ seized more than 50 kilograms of cocaine from two of his couriers.

Dauphin found himself in financial trouble and sought new ways to
finance future drug purchases.

During the trial, the Crown argued Pasquin's role evolved as he became
part of negotiations while Dauphin tried to operate without cash.

Sentencing arguments are to begin on April 23.