J-Tornado drug trial told police agent was friends with accused

The lead investigator in the J-Tornado drug investigationtold the court Thursday, the former Saint John restaurant owner recruited to collect evidence in the case was "friends" with those he was turning on, and there were concerns about how he would perform because of that.

"These are people he has relationships with," said Sgt. Marco Vachon. "The police agent had been a criminal. Now he is working for police."

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Vachon has been testifying for the past three days in the trial of Shane Williams and Joshua Kindred, who were arrested in 2014 as part of the J-Tornado investigation.

They are facing drug possession, trafficking and conspiracy charges.

The businessman police recruited to collect evidence had been close to many of those under investigation in J-Tornado, and Vachon said he watched him carefully after he began collecting video and audio evidence against his former colleagues, looking for signs of guilt or remorse.

"Is he depressed? Does he regret what he has done," Vachon saidhe asked himself as he observed the man, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

But Vachon said the man hired as an official police agent seemed unaffected by what he was doing.

Agent performed well

During the first assignment, which was to buy fourounces of cocaine from a man named Anthony Edison, who police say ran one of two drug rings in Saint John, the agent performed flawlessly.

The transaction occurred in the agent's Saint John home, which had been outfitted by police with video and audio gear.

When the agent completed the task and returned the cocaine to a police safe house, there were no signs of regret Vachon could detect.

"He was happy. He was like 'I got it' [the cocaine].He was in a good mood," said Vachon.

"That person [Edison]had been one of his friends." Anthony Edison was arrested in September 2014 along with Williams, Kindred and 25 others but has not yet had a trial.

Agent had credibility as criminal

Vachon said the police agent had credibility with the suspects because he had been a criminal himself.

He said when police wanted to entice both Saint John drug rings to make a larger than normal purchase of cocaine so they could seize all of their money, he simply had the police agent offer to make them a deal for a large shipment.

"He had done it before for both groups," said Vachon.

Police paid the agent $3,000 in cash every two weeks during the six months of his employment plus expenses.

They also offered threebonus payments of up to $174,666.66,each payable after the achievement of three goals:

• The arrest of suspects
• The conclusion of all preliminary inquiries
• The conclusion of all trials, including appeals

The agent is scheduled to testify against his old acquaintances in the next few days, and defence lawyers for Williams and Kindred say his credibility will be the central issue of the trial.