NEW LINE OF DEFENCE

Convicted Cocaine Conspirator Cites Brain Damage In Appeal Of 25-yr. Rap

WHITE DEER, Pennsylvania -- Once a high roller, Michael Vanasse had two
vices -- fast cars and fine cocaine.

His toys were vintage Harleys and Porches in red, black and blue. He left
quite an impression with lavish parties and a free-spending style.

Everything turned to gold back then, the decadent 1980s when Vanasse owned
property, businesses and a sprawling 7,000-sq.-ft. home on the quiet
outskirts of the city.

Around cocaine-rich Ottawa, he was known as the "million-dollar man."

Born to humble roots, Vanasse claims his life's frills were the fruit of
successful real estate deals. He was a lucky property entrepreneur who
peddled white powder on the side just to ensure a steady, top-quality
supply for himself.

Only the best would do.

But Canadian drug investigators and U.S. authorities sketch a much
different portrait of Michael Vanasse. They maintain he was the cocaine
kingpin of Eastern Ontario -- and a leader in a massive smuggling operation
recorded as the biggest drug bust in the history of the State of Pennsylvania.

The spectacular seizure of 1.5 tons of pure cocaine on Sept. 21, 1990, was
worth $500 million.

In a bizarre scene scripted by odd timing and bad luck, Vanasse woke from a
month-long coma paralyzed, brain damaged -- and under RCMP arrest.

It was October 1991 -- a month after a serious car crash left him in
critical condition at Ottawa's General Hospital.

It was more than a year after the elaborate smuggling operation that
stretched from Bogota, Colombia, to Canada's capital was foiled by an
emergency landing in Pennsylvania.

The refurbished DC-3 aircraft, its floor lined with kilo bricks of cocaine
in duffel bags, had been destined for Nova Scotia, where it was to drop its
load over an isolated blueberry patch.

From there, the shipment was to carry on by ground to Ottawa, its main
distribution point. It would then move to possible links in New York,
Montreal and Toronto.

COCAINE PIPELINE

Touted as a "test run," it could have opened a new cocaine pipeline between
Colombia and Canada. But a fuel shortage forced the plane to land just
before midnight at an Allentown, Pa. airstrip.

Vanasse wasn't one of the three men on board, but he was among the 26
people later accused of conspiring to import the cocaine. Eventually he was
fingered as a key financier and organizer.

By the time the U.S. grand jury returned the second indictment naming
several Canadian defendants, however, Vanasse was unconscious in hospital.
He remained in a coma as the two-officer, 24-hour police guard began watch
over his hospital bed.

After years of international legal wrangling, Vanasse was finally sentenced
last fall to 25 years in a U.S. penitentiary.

He is now appealing both the sentence and his conviction, which he claims
is the result of a guilty plea made when he was mentally unfit and without
effective legal counsel.

"I wasn't involved. I was just a sucker who was supposed to die," says
Vanasse in an interview at the federal Allenwood Low Security Correctional
Institution.

His days of Rolex watches, fancy parties and black leather outfits in the
past, Vanasse is now confined to a three-inmate "cubicle" and wears a
standard-issue shirt and trousers in a drab beige.

He rises each day at 5 a.m. and sleeps each night at 9.

There is much time in a day to think, but his thoughts are usually muddled.
Short-term memory failure and chronic confusion are lingering symptoms of
brain injuries.

"I was in a coma, I was supposed to die," Vanasse repeats. "I was the best
one to blame, but I lived through it."

Vanasse, who liked driving fast, crashed the car he was test driving. He
maintains his poor prognosis made him an "easy target" for others, who
blamed him because his chances for recovery were slim.

BRAIN DAMAGED

But Vanasse didn't die. Instead, he stirred from the coma to begin a
10-month recuperation in hospital.

Brain-damaged and paralyzed on his left side, he was in a wheelchair and
needed to learn how to walk again.

It was during this long hospital stay that Vanasse had long conversations
with Cpl. David Wilson, a now-retired Mountie who was posted to guard his
bedside.

Documenting details of those lengthy talks, Wilson later recalled how
Vanasse spoke about the merits of kneecapping over killing as a method for
recovering drug debts, and how he bragged about eluding police through his
career of drug trafficking.

Vanasse denies he was violent, and says police were eager to pin blame on
him because they knew he sold drugs and "drove like a maniac."

"I was mouthy," he says. "I was under investigation for stupid stuff and I
used to play them."

After a transfer to St. Vincent's, Vanasse received a psychiatric
assessment at Royal Ottawa Hospital before he settled in at the
Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre to wait out three years of legal proceedings.

U.S. prosecutors were still waiting for him.

Two other Ottawa-area men, Ken Mousseau and John Lepine, were also named on
the indictment that traced an international network of co-accused.

GUILTY PLEA

Initially, Lepine successfully fought extradition on the grounds the drugs
weren't intended for distribution in the U.S. The Supreme Court of Canada
overturned the decision and allowed his extradition, but he was acquitted
after trial.

Vanasse's lawyer fought extradition on different grounds: Mental
incompetency. An ROH psychiatrist's assessment found him incapable of
instructing counsel and mentally unfit, but an Ottawa court determined he
was competent to be extradited.

Several months after Vanasse was turned over to U.S. authorities in
December 1995, he pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to possess with
the intent to distribute. He appeared prepared to co-operate with authorities.

"I was told if I pleaded guilty I'd be home by Christmas," he says.

A subsequent attempt to withdraw the plea was rejected, a key plank in his
appeal now before the courts.

The sentencing, on hold as cases of his co-accused moved through the
courts, was eventually set at 25 years followed by five years' supervised
release. The term was increased for a threat of bodily harm made against
the prosecutor handling the case, considered an obstruction of justice.

Vanasse, now 46, denies making the threat.

He also denies financing or helping devise the smuggling operation and
claims he didn't even promise to buy a specified quantity of the Colombian
cocaine when it arrived.

"I knew about the airplane. I was asked but I said, 'No, I don't buy
imaginary drugs. When they get here, maybe I'm interested,' " he says.

But assistant U.S. attorney Anita Eve, the lead prosecutor in the case,
says Vanasse's professed non-commitment to any specified quantity is
irrelevant. Under U.S. conspiracy laws, evidence of up-front financing or
active participation is not required for a conviction.

"Normally, when a person pleads guilty, they're saying, 'Okay, I did it.
You got me,' " Eve says in an interview from Philadelphia. "In this case,
the defendant constantly denied his role. Vanasse was always under the
impression that he was not part of the conspiracy because he didn't engage
in any overt acts."

While prosecutors weren't able to prove Vanasse put cash up front, there
was evidence he "guaranteed" money, Eve says. That, with evidence he knew
about and agreed to the plan, was enough to convict him.

According to a U.S. court brief filed last month in response to the appeal,
Vanasse's involvement ran deep. He and others designed a plan to buy
cocaine from New York, then use the profits from that sale to finance the
Colombian airlift operation. When the money got lost, Vanasse accused them
of stealing the money, threatening one man's life and the life of another
man's mother, according to the court documents.

"I don't own anything anymore. They took everything," Vanasse says. "I just
own my clothes -- if they still fit."

FOREIGN CONTENT

Canadians in foreign jails:

The U.S. accounts for 74% of all active cases of arrest/detention of
Canadians abroad.

One-third (33%) of all arrest/detention cases abroad involve drug-related
charges. Of those, drug possession (49%) and drug trafficking (48%) charges
make up the bulk.

Once convicted, the length of sentence are: Less than 2 years (9%); 2-5
years (30%); 5-10 years (28%); 10-20 years (22%); and more than 20 years (8%).

Individuals arrested or detained on drug-related charges tend to be male
(80%) and be between 30-39 years old (34%). Another 24% are aged 40-49 and
23% are 20-29 years old. Less than one-fifth (18%) are older than 50.

- -- Data from 2000, provided by Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, Consular Bureau

LOCAL MEN NABBED IN 1990 BUST

Three Ottawa men were among the 26 charged after a botched drug-smuggling
operation in 1990. Most were sentenced to 10 years or less. Michael Vanasse
of Ottawa is appealing his term of 25 years in federal prison.

MICHAEL VANASSE: Fought extradition to the U.S. on grounds of mental
competency, but bid was unsuccessful. Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
possess with the intention to distribute. Later attempted to withdraw plea.
After repeated delays due to extradition, mental assessments and scheduling
problems, he was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison last fall. He is
appealing the sentence and conviction, and is scheduled to be released in 2013.

JOHN LEPINE: Disappeared in 1993 after he was ordered extradited to the
U.S. to face a drug conspiracy charge. An Ontario Judge had initially
rejected the bid to extradite him on the grounds the plan involved
distributing cocaine in Canada, not the U.S., but the Supreme Court of
Canada overturned that decision. Mounties arrested him in 1997 and he was
sent to the U.S., where he was tried and acquitted. Last year, Lepine was
charged under Project Angle, a year-long international drug investigation
in Ottawa, Hull and Nova Scotia which led to 19 arrests and seizure of
hash, marijuana, cocaine and firearms.

KEN MOUSSEAU: Co-operated with federal authorities, was extradited in 1992
and was sentenced to four years in federal prison.