HAMILTON COP, LOCAL NUTRITION STORES CAUGHT UP IN DRUGS PROBE

A Hamilton police officer and a champion bodybuilder are among 22
people arrested in relation to a multi-police-agency investigation
that cracked a major methamphetamine and anabolic steroid ring that
used local nutrition stores to deal the drugs.

Codenamed Project Newton, the 18-month Hamilton police-led
investigation seized a staggering 26 kilograms of pure "crystal meth"
with an estimated street value of more than $3 million.

Police also seized more than $1 million worth of anabolic steroids,
along with cocaine, pot, ecstasy, ketamine, cash, luxury cars and a
home in east Hamilton.

On Thursday, Hamilton police charged Constable Andrew Pauls, one of
their own, with breach of trust for allegedly leaking secret police
information to the main target in Project Newton. That man is Reiner
Ruska, 34, of Hamilton, a well-known bodybuilder who owns and
operates Herc's Nutrition store on Upper James.

Ruska, his fiancee and his brother are among 21 people swept up in a
series of predawn raids at 23 homes and businesses in Hamilton,
Halton, Niagara, Peel, Haldimand County and Sudbury on Wednesday.
They have been charged with a raft of drug trafficking, possession,
and proceeds of crime offences.

"The charges flow from disturbing allegations of drug trafficking
from local nutrition stores in the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara
regions, in particular the constant trafficking of anabolic
steroids," Hamilton police acting Superintendent Dan Kinsella said.

The investigation, involving 175 officers from nine police agencies,
started with a single tip to Hamilton police to take a closer look at
an individual associated with a local nutrition store.

"The investigation penetrated and exposed the inner workings of a
loose-knit group of individuals involved in the bodybuilding
community," Kinsella said Thursday.

Kinsella said police determined that "any quantity of cocaine,
steroids and other designer drugs were easily accessible.

"More disturbing was a supply of crystal methamphetamine, a
lab-produced drug which is extremely addictive."

Twenty-one people were arrested as a result of the raids - nine from
Hamilton, three from Burlington, two from Caledonia, two from
Beamsville, and one each from Grimsby, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls,
Mississauga and Sudbury. The charges range from conspiracy to traffic
and possession for the purpose of trafficking anabolic steroids,
methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and ketamine to actual
production of anabolic steroids, prohibited weapon and proceeds of crime.

Valued at more than $3 million on the street, the haul was "the
largest single seizure of crystal methamphetamine outside of a
(clandestine) lab setting in Canada."

The busts also turned up over

$1 million in illegal anabolic steroids in both liquid and pill form
that police say the group had been making themselves and were dealing
through two Herc's Nutrition stores in Hamilton and a Premier
Nutrition store in Grimsby.

"Project Newton uncovered a network of individuals who worked
together as an organized group conducting illegal activity throughout
southern Ontario from Niagara Falls to the Greater Sudbury region,"
said Kinsella.

Ruska won an Ontario heavyweight bodybuilding championship in 2007.
An endorsement for an online weight-busting program identifies Ruska
as the store owner of Herc's. Other advertisements detail Ruska's
services as a personal trainer at Premier Nutrition in Grimsby.

Ruska's brother Alex, 37, who operates Herc's Nutrition on Centennial
Parkway in Stoney Creek, was also charged in connection with the raid.

Both stores were open Thursday and employees said news of the raid
hadn't affected sales.

"Everybody was a little surprised," said an employee working at the
Centennial Parkway store who wouldn't reveal her name. "But it's
business as usual."

Ruska's former wife, Lusiana Toste, said she was "in shock" over both
the charges and the magnitude of the bust. "He makes some bad
choices, but he has a good heart," she said of her ex.

In addition to drugs, police seized $140,000 in cash, nine vehicles
including luxury cars, and a small red-brick home on Craigroyston
Road near Viscount Montgomery elementary school in Hamilton's east
end. Toste said Ruska's 26-year-old fiancee, Carla Rao, lives in the
seized home. She's also facing charges.

On Craigroyston Road, neighbours described Rao and Ruska as a nice
couple. Yet, they said the pair drew a lot of attention in the modest
east-end neighbourhood with the upscale cars, including a Porsche,
Ferrari and Hummer, that were often parked in the driveway.

On Thursday, police said Pauls had allegedly accessed confidential
information from an internal police computer and passed the
information on to Ruska at some point after Project Newton was
started, but before he was suspended and charged for allegedly
stealing drugs from the police evidence locker.

Police became aware of Pauls's alleged information leak to Ruska
after he was suspended, said Hamilton police Chief Glenn De Caire.

Last August, the nine-year police veteran, who is 32, was charged
with two counts of theft of property valued under $5,000, one count
of possession of property valued under $5,000, possession of drugs,
and breach of trust.

Police allege Pauls stole Oxycocet tablets from a locked drug deposit
box at police headquarters.

During Project Newton, "it came to the attention of the Hamilton
police that a sworn officer had allegedly leaked information acquired
from a police computer system to the main target of the ongoing
investigation," De Caire said Thursday. "There is no evidence that
this officer is connected to the drug investigation."

Project Newton involved police teams from Halton, Niagara, Peel, OPP,
RCMP Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and RCMP Drug Unit,
Canada Border Services Agency, York and Waterloo.

Crystal meth has been sweeping North America generally from west to
east. It's a favourite drug in poorer parts of rural America, and
west coast Canada has struggled with its proliferation. It was not as
prevalent in Hamilton, where crack cocaine, prescription drugs and
heroin are major street drugs.

"In our history here in Hamilton, it has been a drug that
traditionally this city has not seen an awful lot of," De Caire said.
"This project solidifies the fact that the drug is well entrenched in
the city of Hamilton."