CROWN ABANDONS MASSIVE DRUG CASE

EDMONTON -The Crown has abandoned its case against 19 members of
an alleged cocaine trafficking ring after nearly five years at a cost
of $36 million. The case, which never made it before a jury, was so
unwieldy the Crown conceded it could not bring it to trial in a
reasonable amount of time, as guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms.

It began in September 1999, when hundreds of police officers arrested
68 people and companies in raids in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alta.

Over the years, charges were dropped against several of them and
officials split the case into two prosecutions in an effort to
simplify proceedings.

Even so, the federal Department of Justice said it finally had no
choice but to pull the plug on both.

''We have to give priority and abide by the right of an accused to
have their trial within a reasonable time,'' said Wes Smart, the
federal department's director of prosecutions on the Prairies.

''We're not in a position to say at this time we can do that or the
court will be able to do that. Therefore, we must end it.''

The Crown was also unable to fulfil its obligation to disclose
mountains of evidence to the defence in a timely fashion, and the case
was not well co-ordinated with police, officials said.

Later, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said his department will
draft amendments that will cut paperwork by clarifying what core
information should be given to the defence.

Federal prosecutors had appealed an Edmonton judge's decision last
fall to stay charges against 11 accused in one of the two drug-ring
cases on the basis that their trial had been unreasonably delayed.

Prosecutors dropped that appeal Friday and stayed charges against the
eight remaining accused in the other case. Police say the massive
effort wasn't a complete loss.

They note 24 suspects pleaded guilty and a handful were
deported.

All told, 7.5 million pieces of paper were produced, each of which had
to be funnelled to each suspect's defence lawyer.

Some suspects had up to four defence lawyers, who also received
hundreds of cassette tapes holding an estimated 250,000
conversations.

Sanjeev Anand, a former prosecutor, said the government just doesn't
get it.

Anand, now a University of Alberta law professor, said the Crown
should prosecute a handful of people that they have the strongest
evidence against and get stiff sentences that send a message.

The criminals are laughing at the government and will continue their
ways because they aren't afraid of going to jail, Anand said.

Supt. Raf Souccar, director-general of the RCMP's drugs and organized
crime section, said police have changed their training and procedures.

''We now appoint disclosure officers at the outset of an
investigation, not at the end of the investigation.''

Investigators and other staff have received more training on
maintaining electronic databases, he said.

Edmonton defence lawyer Tom Engel, who represented one defendant, said
it was apparent early on that the prosecutions were doomed and he said
he's surprised officials didn't pull the plug earlier.