JUDGE CONDEMNED DRUG MULE TO DIE IN JAIL

Bail Denied To 63-Year-Old With Cancer

Joseph Andrews won't be going home to die.

The convicted drug mule -- who is suffering from terminal cancer while
serving a four-year prison term -- was denied bail yesterday by
Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Charles Huband.

Defence lawyer Ian Garber pleaded for his client's release on
compassionate grounds, noting doctors have told Andrews he may only
have a few months left to live.

Andrews, 63, wants to return home to British Columbia to spend his
final days, but Crown attorney Ian Mahon argued yesterday the career
criminal may try to flee to Mexico.

"That's ridiculous. He is in no shape to flee to anywhere," Garber
said outside court.

Andrews, a resident of Langley, B.C., was convicted earlier this year
of possession for the purpose of trafficking. He was arrested in
February 2002 after Winnipeg police stopped his rental vehicle on
Portage Avenue just west of the Perimeter Highway.

Drug officers found two kilograms of cocaine hidden in a cooler behind
the seat, which they believe was destined for the local chapter of the
Hells Angels.

Andrews is appealing his prison sentence, but no hearing dates have
been set. Garber hoped to get his client released on bail pending the
appeal, which Andrews might not even live to see.

Andrews blames shoddy medical care at the Winnipeg Remand Centre for
failing to detect the illness which has left him on the brink of death.

He detailed his concerns in a recent interview with the Free Press
from his room at Concordia Hospital, where a guard from Stony Mountain
is posted 24 hours a day.

Garber said yesterday the hospital will send him back to Stony next
week, figuring there is nothing else they can do for him. "They are
sending him back to die," said Garber.

Andrews said he began experiencing stomach and rectal pain shortly
after his arrest, and asked to see the in-house doctor at the Remand
Centre.

"They told me I had gas in the stomach and gave me some Tums. They
gave me Metamusil. They gave me Tylenol. They told me they couldn't do
anything for me," Andrews claims.

His cancer was only detected in August, after he was sentenced to
prison and transferred to Stony Mountain.

A doctor at the medium-security prison immediately sent him to
hospital for a myriad of tests and surgery, which detected cancer in
the colon, which had also spread to his liver and spleen.

Andrews and his family are now considering a lawsuit against the
province, claiming the Remand Centre will be negligent for his
expected demise.

Andrews has an extensive criminal record spanning four decades,
including previous drug convictions. He is also wanted in
Massachusetts for violating terms of a previous sentence.

He is married to a woman he met while traveling to Mexico on drug
business. She has recently come to Winnipeg to be with Andrews, and is
currently living in a convent, said Garber.