JUDGE REJECTS DRUG DEALER'S ENTRAPMENT CLAIM

Addict Among 31 Busted in Project Ozzy; Drug Ring Had Guelph Connections

A speed dealer was sentenced yesterday to 34 months in jail after a
judge rejected arguments he was entrapped during a major drug investigation.

Eddy Thompson, 37, of Stratford, a methamphetamine addict and married
father of two boys, has already spent almost a year in pre-trial custody.

Justice Pat Flynn described methamphetamine, also known as speed, as
"insidious and destructive to users and the community."

Thompson pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Kitchener last week to
three counts of trafficking for selling $13,000 worth of
methamphetamine to an undercover police officer in the parking lot of
a McDonald's restaurant in New Hamburg in late 2003.

But his lawyer, John Lang, then argued the proceedings should be
stayed because a paid police informant made and supplied the
methamphetamine to Thompson behind the backs of investigators.

The informant, Troy Schlotzhauer of Stratford, is now in a witness
protection program and didn't testify at the hearing.

Schlotzhauer, a known dealer who agreed to work for police while in
custody, was charged with producing and trafficking methamphetamine
in the middle of a joint-forces investigation led by the RCMP from
October 2003 to August 2004.

But the charges, laid by the OPP in an unrelated investigation, were
later dismissed after a preliminary hearing because of insufficient evidence.

Schlotzhauer was paid by police to set up drug deals between
suspected traffickers and undercover officers.

The 10-month investigation -- dubbed Project Ozzy -- led to the
arrests of 31 people and the seizure of more than $3 million in
assets, including cash, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, vehicles
and weapons.

The drug ring was based in Waterloo Region but also had connections
to Stratford, Guelph, Goderich, Toronto and British Columbia.

Lang said Schlotzhauer was both making methamphetamine and supplying
it to Thompson for sale to an undercover officer, a scheme that
brought the administration of justice into disrepute.

Police were duped, he argued, and should have been closely monitoring
a known criminal on their payroll.

Flynn, however, found there was no credible evidence Schlotzhauer
made and supplied the drug to Thompson.

He noted the charges against Schlotzhauer were dismissed and that
experienced police officers maintain he was honest with them
throughout the investigation.

Even if Schlotzhauer had supplied the methamphetamine, he ruled, it
wouldn't be entrapment because Thompson -- who testified he got only
10 per cent of the money -- was a "willing, even eager, participant."

Flynn said police have been given a lot of latitude to investigate
drug dealers, and a rogue informant, while unfortunate, would not
"shock and offend the conscience of the community."

After his application for a stay was dismissed, Thompson also pleaded
guilty to methamphetamine possession and trafficking charges stemming
from a September 2005 search of his Stratford home.

Police seized speed, drug paraphernalia, two stolen laptop computers
and almost $16,000. The home was fitted with surveillance cameras and
police scanners.

Flynn also ordered Thompson to pay a $13,000 fine -- equivalent to
the amount police paid him -- or get six more months in jail. In
addition, federal prosecutor Alyssa Bain has applied for the
forfeiture of money found during the search.