DRUG COP ARRESTED FOR TRAFFICKING

An RCMP officer who had a knack for sniffing out drug dealers has been
charged with drug trafficking.

Const. Joseph Daniel Ryan, 31, a longtime member of Tantallon RCMP's street
team, was arraigned Thursday on one count of selling marijuana. A fellow
RCMP officer arrested Const. Ryan without incident in Halifax at about 6
p.m. Wednesday.

A member of the RCMP for almost six years, Const. Ryan was charged with one
count of trafficking marijuana. The officer, who goes by the name Danny,
was taken to the Enfield RCMP detachment and held overnight.

RCMP major crime and plainclothes officers were involved in the
investigation, but the force refuses to say much about the circumstances of
the arrest.

A source told this newspaper about 1.3 kilograms of marijuana was seized in
the Halifax bust.

Documents filed with Halifax provincial court, in which Const. Ryan was
arraigned Thursday and released, allege the offence happened Wednesday in
Tantallon.

"The information regarding this allegation came to us a short time ago and
because of the seriousness of the allegations, . . . we acted upon it right
away," Sgt. Wayne Noonan, the RCMP's provincial spokesman, said Thursday.

"We deployed a multitude of resources, both physical and otherwise, to the
investigation."

Const. Ryan has spent his entire career with the 40-member Tantallon RCMP
detachment outside Halifax. He spent most of that time on the street team,
a two-man plainclothes unit that concentrates on street-level drug dealers
and growers.

Although its members remained anonymous, the street team has received
extensive coverage in recent years. It racked up millions of dollars
annually in drug seizures.

Sgt. Noonan said it's too early to say whether additional charges could be
laid, but Const. Ryan has been suspended with pay.

Speaking to reporters at RCMP headquarters in Halifax, Sgt. Noonan would
not say whether the arrest has compromised investigations the street team
conducted.

"It would be premature for me to say anything about that right now. I don't
really know, I guess, is my best answer," he said.

Sgt. Noonan also dismissed the possibility the charge has called into
question evidence storage practices.

Officials with the Public Prosecution Service of Nova Scotia and the
federal Justice Department, which prosecuted many of Const. Ryan's cases,
were reluctant Thursday to say whether any of the street team's cases
should be reinvestigated.

"We're going to look at what information there is and thoroughly examine
whether or not a further review needs to be done," said Glenn Chamberlain,
the federal Justice Department's spokesman.

With Const. Ryan as a guiding force, the street team has made hundreds of
busts, everything from the arrest of an alleged small-time drug dealer at
the Otter Lake landfill to a raid on a $1.3-million indoor growing
operation at a Hammonds Plains Road home.

In 2000, for instance, the team seized 1,668 marijuana plants with an
estimated street value of $2.8 million, 10 kilograms of processed marijuana
worth about $220,000, three kilograms of hash worth about $62,000, $76,000
worth of growing equipment, and an assortment of other drugs like crack
cocaine and ecstasy worth about $10,000.

Those numbers were racked up in 50 raids that resulted in 125 drug charges
and 120 other criminal charges.

In 1999, the street team seized more than $2.13 million in drugs, stolen
vehicles and cash.

But not all the busts were successful.

In October 2000, almost 70 RCMP officers, including members of the
emergency response team, major crime unit and proceeds-of-crime section,
raided numerous homes in Pockwock, near Hammonds Plains.

The raids - the result of intelligence gathered by the street team over six
to eight months - did not result in major seizures although they were given
extensive media coverage.

The force took flak from the community, and several months later reports
started to surface that some senior officers were less than happy with the
results.

Last summer, the street team again made headlines when members charged five
people with public nudity in July after the detachment received complaints
about nudity and sexual acts at Crystal Crescent Beach.

The Crown dropped the charges after a few months of controversy.

Officers at the Tantallon detachment were reluctant to discuss their
friend's arrest Thursday, although a few admitted they were shocked and
demoralized.

Sgt. Noonan tried to sum up their feelings.

"I think, right now, we're all in some sort of state of shock. But again, I
would emphasize that nobody has been convicted of anything just yet," he said.

Const. Ryan, who joined the RCMP while living in Campbell's Bay, Que., near
Montreal, has a common-law wife and one child.

When he was arrested, he was awaiting a transfer to Ottawa. A little over a
week ago, Tantallon officers said they were organizing a going-away party
for him.

Const. Ryan could not be reached for comment.