FORMER JAIL GUARD GETS 4-YEAR SENTENCE FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

Man Was Paid $2,000 By Prisoner After Smuggling Contraband

Roger Brian Moore, a former corrections officer caught selling drugs
in 2006 at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, was sentenced Friday to
four years in prison.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Neill Brown said the crime was very serious
because it put other corrections officers and prisoners at risk. The
judge noted seven out of 10 convicts have drug-abuse problems.

"Incarceration is a window of opportunity to interrupt the cycle of
addiction," the judge said, pointing out that five people died of drug
overdoses in provincial jails last year.

The judge said once an officer is corrupted, it risks operational
security and increases violence among the jail population. Moore also
jeopardized the safety and security of his fellow officers, the judge
said.

Moore, 35, was the first provincial corrections officer in B.C. to be
prosecuted for drug trafficking. He was convicted last Feb. 27 of
trafficking marijuana, ecstasy and anabolic steroids.

The prison value of the illegal drugs was $20,620. Moore also smuggled
$10,000 worth of tobacco into the jail.

After he was caught smuggling the contraband, Moore admitted he was
paid $2,000 by a prisoner, Andrew Ajit Singh.

Singh and his cellmate, Matthew James Johnston, were charged with
possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Johnston is one of the accused in the Surrey Six murder case and Singh
is named as a possible shooter in a civil lawsuit filed by Laurie
Tinga, who was critically wounded in 2005 while watching TV in the
living room of her Port Moody home when a stray bullet hit her in the
head.

After the contraband was found in the cell of Singh and Johnston,
Moore made things worse by releasing other prisoners from their cells,
which could have jeopardized the investigation, the judge said.

A review of surveillance video found Moore handing Singh the
contraband. Moore had worked as a corrections officer for seven years
and previously worked as bouncer before taking criminology courses.

Moore is among six B.C. corrections officers found to be
corrupt.

One, Edwin Ticne, 35, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years for helping gang
leader Omid Tahvili escape from the maximum-security North Fraser
Pretrial Centre in 2007.

Tahvili remains on the lam.