Calgary police officer's son charged in Utah meth bust facing up to life in prison

A man facing a term of 10 years to life in prison if convicted of the federal drug charges that he and two other Calgary-area men are facing in Utah is the son ofa Calgary police officer, sources tellCBC News.

While Brennan Tutt's troubles in America are just beginning,charges he was facing in Calgary were withdrawnMonday.

Last weekTutt, 24, wascharged withpossession with intent to distributealong withKyle Carson Taylor, 19, and Caicedo Ramirez Santiago, 20, afterUtah highway patrol officers seized 104 kilogramsof meth hidden in a pickup pulled over near Provo.

• Calgary-area men arrested in largest Utah meth bust, says highway patrol

The seizure is considered the largest meth bust in the state's history. Troopers told theDeseretNewsthatthe haul ofmethis worth about $1.5 million wholesale but can fetch as much as 10 times that amount on the street.

In Calgary,Tutt who used to play hockey in the WHL was facing charges of unlawful confinement, assault, theft under $5,000, as well asbreak and enter stemming from a domestic incident earlier this year.

Those charges were withdrawn on Monday by an Edmonton prosecutor who had been assigned to the case in order to avoid any conflict due to the fact that Tutt is the son of a Calgary police officer.

"He maintained his innocence on that case right from the beginning," said defence lawyer, Gavin Wolch who represented Tutt on his Calgary matters.

Wolch says he helped Tutt find a "well respected" American lawyer to represent him on his drug charges.

"It's still registering that they are where they are," said Wolch. "It's a very different process; things happen quickly down there."

Street value of methworth up to$15M: authorities

A conviction on the federal drug charges faced by the three Alberta men come with aminimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison, according to Wolch.

"We see these mandatory minimums in the U.S., which are to the extreme and remind us up here of the criticisms of that path which we shouldn't follow," said Wolch.

The meth, according to the St. George News in Utah, is estimated to havea wholesale U.S. value of $1.5 million and a street value between $7 and $15 million.

The drugs were hidden in boxes and suitcases along with steroids and $66,000 in cash, according to authorities.