THE INFORMANT: CITY DRUG UNDERGROUND UNCOVERED

It's March 26, 2008 and a 45-year-old Peterborough man is sitting in
an Oshawa hotel room surrounded by his police handlers.

Months of undercover work are about to be justified. The lives of a
handful of cocaine dealers are about to change drastically. The man
sitting with police knows he'll never be able to safely live in his
hometown again.

His wife and three-year-old daughter have already been removed from
Peterborough under a cloak of anonymity.

Meanwhile in Peterborough, a multi-unit police squad raids the house
of a former Bandidos gang member, a huge home sitting on the Otonabee
River flood-plain facing the Hwy. 7 bypass and the bridge crossing the
river.

The Ontario Provincial Police Biker Enforcement Unit and the OPP drug
enforcement section lead the squad with help from the asset forfeiture
unit, the provincial repeat offenders parole enforcement unit, the
provincial weapons enforcement unit and city police.

The owner of the house, Robert Pammett, a stocky man, now 60, with
curly, grey hair is arrested along with nearly a dozen others from
Peterborough and Toronto in multiple, simultaneous arrests.

The main players arrested don't know it yet, but the man in the Oshawa
hotel room has provided the police and Crown attorney's office with a
glut of evidence that will leave those charged with little wiggle room
as they enter the courts.

That evidence will lead to the conviction of eight people, resulting
in more than 30 years of combined prison time. Not one of the eight
will take their case to trial, all pleading guilty.

Mervyn Monteith was contractually referred to by the OPP as
confidential police agent 3951.Those who knew him in Peterborough
called him Merv.

That day in the Oshawa hotel room was a game-changer for
Monteith.

The man who dedicated much of his adult life to selling cocaine in
Peterborough, a man whose face could strike fear in those who owed him
money, was about to break the chains of nearly two decades in the drug
world.

And he did it the only way he knew how. He brought police into his
world so he could leave it for good, or at least try.

Monteith signed a contract Sept. 20,2007 to become an agent. He would
be paid about $96,000 plus living expenses in an operation targeting
Pammett and his ties to the Bandidos.

When the outlaw motorcycle gang disband-ed shortly after, Project
Underground, as it was called, switched focus to Pammett and his drug
ties.

Monteith wore a hidden recording device during the sting. He made
deals in coffee shops in mid-afternoon. While regulars sipped coffee
and talked hockey, he talked drugs and prices. A team of undercover
police officers watched his every move.

He purchased a kilogram of cocaine at a gas station in Port Hope and
made numerous visits to Pammett's home to buy ounces of cocaine.

Monteith is a hugely conflicted man, a drug dealer with a
conscience.

There's no downplaying the harm Monteith has done to this community as
one of its early cocaine pioneers. One only has to sit in the Simcoe
St. courthouse for a day to see the ripple effect the drug has caused,
the lives it destroys and the crimes committed in its pursuit.

The temporary removal of eight drug dealers is hardly reason for
forgiveness.

But Monteith did make a stand against his own kind. In his own way, he
tried to give back to the community. He saw first-hand the harm drugs
have caused on the downtown streets and says he felt disgusted with
his life.

He was not forced into his contract. He says he was not facing charges
when he approached police and put himself in danger, possibly for the
rest of his life.

In an exclusive interview with The Examiner, Monteith stepped out of
his undisclosed location, came back to the city where it's no longer
safe to show his face and laid his 48 years of life on the table.

In a series of articles, The Examiner will chronicle Monteith's
troubled childhood, his initiation into the cocaine trade and
subsequent involvement over an 18-year period.

His story offers a rare insight into the criminal world, biker gangs
and police investigations.