BROTHERS PLEAD GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGES

Two Ottawa brothers who headed up a multimillion-dollar international drug
ring handed over almost $1 million in assets yesterday after pleading
guilty to drug charges.

Ottawa real estate agent James Kenny, 48, and his 52-year-old brother Brian
Kenny pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic drugs, simple drug
trafficking, conspiracy to possess proceeds of crime and money laundering.
James Kenny pleaded guilty to an additional charge of possession for the
purposes of trafficking.

Both men, who along with two dozen others were busted after a joint-force
operation dubbed Project Angle, were handed a five-year prison sentence and
were forced to hand over cash and assets obtained by crime. The assets
included homes, time shares, cars and a sail boat which is believed to have
been used to bring hundreds of kilograms of hashish into Nova Scotia from
Gibraltar twice a year.

'Motivation Was Greed'

Once in Halifax, the drugs were unloaded and then shipped to Ontario, where
they were distributed in large quantities.

"It's clear they were offences for which the only motivation was greed,"
federal Crown prosecutor Ann Alder told the court. According to the agreed
statement of facts, neither Brian Kenny nor any of their distributors had
legitimate jobs.

"Basically, they were on the payroll of this organization," Alder said,
adding that apartments and trips for the so-called employees were funded by
the Kenny brothers.

Police recorded hundreds of conversations between the Kenny brothers and
their associates, in which real estate terms were used as code for drugs
and cash.

The day before the scheduled police raids, Brian and James Kenny had a
telephone conversation about a piece of property consisting of 40 acres. In
one of the 24 searches conducted by police Nov. 13, 2001, 40 kg of recently
delivered hashish was found.

In all, police seized 93 kg of hashish, more than $200,000 in cash, a
kilogram of marijuana, a small amount of cocaine, five vehicles and nine
firearms in raids conducted in Ottawa, the Outaouais, Eastern Ontario,
Laval, Que., and Halifax.

Tax Evasion

Also pleading guilty to tax evasion, both men admitted to failing to each
claim $513,436 in income between 1989 and 2000. They were handed a
six-month jail sentence to be served concurrently with their prison time.