JUDGE TOSSES DRUG CASE

Delays Set Women Free

Cocaine importation charges against two women have been stayed thanks
to justice's slowly turning wheels. Christine McNeilly and Karla Roy
were arrested on Dec. 14, 2002, at Pearson International Airport after
Canada Customs inspectors found 1.5 kilos of cocaine in false suitcase
compartments, according to a ruling from Brampton Justice Casey Hill
made public yesterday.

The women were arrested during a security blitz at Pearson in which
multiple charges were laid against several people.

In total, the Pearson blitz stopped an estimated $1 million in cocaine
from hitting Toronto streets, authorities said at the time of the bust.

POLICE BLAMED

About 240 international flights were targeted by customs officers
using X-ray scanners and drug-detecting dogs. About 740 travellers
were sent for extra security checks during the blitz.

But in his ruling, Hill criticized police and the Crown for delays in
getting evidence ready, incomplete disclosure and officers failing to
show up in court on days they were to testify.

"Unfortunately the police, through their conduct, managed to hijack
the preliminary inquiry," Hill ruled.

In all, Hill concluded, there was an unreasonable delay in getting the
women to trial.

"This was by no means a complex case," he wrote.