DRUG SUPPLIER'S MURDER TRIAL BEGINS

Crown Argues Fadi Saleh Plotted To Kill Ottawa Dealer In 2004

An Ottawa drug supplier angry at being cut out of a lucrative $50,000
to $70,000-a-month cocaine commission plotted to kill a drug dealer
later found buried in a shallow grave after being shot at least
twice, along with having his skull crushed and his right hand
severed, a prosecutor alleged Monday.

In his opening address to the jury in the first-degree murder trial
of Fadi Saleh, assistant Crown attorney Dallas Mack alleged that
Saleh, 32, was one of three men who gathered on a remote road on Aug.
20, 2004, with Hussein El-Hajj Hassan, a 27-year-old cocaine dealer
whose body wouldn't be found until more than 10 months later.

Mack said the jury will hear Saleh was El-Hajj Hassan's drug supplier
up until the day before the killing, when El-Hajj Hassan travelled to
Toronto with $170,000 to buy several kilograms of cocaine directly
from Rafei Ebrekjdian, a drug dealer who supplied Saleh with the
cocaine Saleh had previously sold to El-Hajj Hassan, a married father of three.

The jury is expected to hear evidence that Saleh stood to lose
between $50,000 and $70,000 a month if the victim, who by this time
was moving $200,000 worth of cocaine a week, took his business elsewhere.

When Saleh learned that El-Hajj Hassan was attempting to buy his
drugs at a better price directly from Ebrekjdian, he was angry, Mack
said. One day before the victim was to receive his cocaine from
Ebrekjdian, and under the guise that he would be meeting with
prominent Hells Angel Paul "Sasquatch" Porter, El-Hajj Hassan was
lured to the remote spot where he would be killed.

The central issue in the trial, Mack said, was whether Saleh
participated in the "planned and deliberate" plot to kill El-Hajj
Hassan. Saleh has pleaded not guilty.

Mack alleged that Saleh also collected the victim's $170,000 before
attempting to cover up the crime.

El-Hajj Hassan's wife, Soumia Labrouki, testified Monday that she met
Saleh and Ebrekjdian at a Gatineau nightclub after her husband's
disappearance in hopes of learning his whereabouts.

While both men denied knowing where El-Hajj Hassan was, Saleh was
"really angry about him," said Labrouki, who was six or seven months
pregnant at the time.

"(Saleh) said he didn't think my husband was taking this business
seriously, like he was selling tomatoes or potatoes." Saleh
threatened her, she said, adding the two men were paranoid she was
recording them.

Two other men have been tried in connection with El-Hajj Hassan's
death. Shant Esrabian was found guilty of first-degree murder while
Mark Yegin was acquitted.

The trial continues today.