J-Tornado drug trial told police became biggest cocaine customer

The RCMP bought so much cocaine from a suspecteddrug ring in the summer of 2014 it quickly became the group's best customerand helped finance growing volumes of cocaine the organizationwas bringing into the city,court heard Friday.

A man hired by police to collect evidence on the group testified for the third straight dayin the ongoing drugtrial of Shane Williams and Joshua Kindred, who police say led the organization.

The man, a former Saint John restaurant owner and one time close friend of Williams, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, detailed how he bought over $30,000 in cocaine in a three-week period two years ago, boosting sales nearly 50 per cent.

28 arrested in J-Tornado

Williams and Kindred face a variety of drug possession, drug trafficking and conspiracy charges. Theywere among 28 arrested two years ago as part of an inter-provincial police drug investigation called Operation J-Tornado.

On Friday, theSaint JohnCourt of Queen's Bench heard how Williams and Kindred had been bringing cocaine into the city in shipments of about 250 grams at a time for resale to local dealers.

But when J-Tornado started police had their undercover agent Williams'former friend place orders for cocaine much larger than the group was used to handling and could not easily deal with.

Agent ordered 1/3 ofcocaine

In June and early July the group had initially made arrangements to bring in 750 grams of cocaine in two shipments but upped the amount to nearly 1.4 kilograms 82 per centmore mostly to accommodate large orders by the police agent.

In June he ordered 112 grams from Williams and in July 336 grams.

It was about onethird of everything the group sold.

Police bought large amounts

The agent told the court he made the large orders under instructions from his RCMP handlers, who wanted to record Williams making drug sales.

They also wanted to intercept cell phone messages among members of Williams' group as they made arrangements to receive drug shipments.

But Williams could not afford the large orders and police were forced to forward the group money so it could make the larger drug purchases.

"He [Williams]said I would have to give him the money up front,"said the police agent during his testimony.

$31k in advance payments

The agent said he had to advance Williams$8,140 for the first shipment and $23,500 for the second, so Williams could pay his supplier.

The RCMP forwarded the money through the police agent and then covertly recorded the financial transactions on tape when theyoccurred.

The police agent has been answering questions from Crown prosecutorMelanie Ferron since Wednesday and has not yet been cross examined by defence lawyers.

But William's lawyer Brian Munro has already made the argument with previous witnesses that police caused at least some of lawbreaking in J-Tornado that they then recorded and took credit for stopping.

The trial, which remains well behind schedule, will sit again on Saturdayfor the third week in a row.