J-Tornado drug trial hears closing arguments by defence

The defence lawyers for two alleged kingpinsina high-profile drug trafficking case attacked the credibility of the Crown's key witness during closing arguments in Saint John's Court of Queen's Benchon Wednesday.

Brian Munrodescribed the man as"easily the most untrustworthy, unreliable" witness he had seen in two decades of practising law.

Munro,is representingShane Williams,34, of Smithtown, who is jointly on trial with JoshuaKindred, 39, of Saint John for drug possession, drug trafficking and conspiracy in connection with OperationJ-Tornado, a three-year investigation into drug trafficking in New Brunswick.

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Munroarguedthe secret policeagent, who was Williams' friend at the time,was motivated by money and histestimony should not be given any weight.

The agent, a businessmanwhose identity was protected by a publication ban despite objections raised by media organizations, includingCBC News, was promised nearly $666,000 to distributeBlackberriesto suspects, help with the collection of evidence and testify at trials, Munro told the court.

Suspectswere led to believe the smartphones they were givenwere encrypted, and immune to police surveillance.Instead, emails from the phones were routed directly through RCMP servers, with more than 30,000 messages intercepted andanalyzedby police.

Munropointed out Justice William Granthasonly the agent's word that the phones were handed out to the alleged drug dealers and there were no witnesses who actually saw a message being sent by the accused.

In addition, the agent had the passwords, so hecould have gotten hold of the phones andsent the messages himself,or even hacked into the phones, Munro submitted.

"What a system," remarkedMunro. "It worked beautifully for him."

'Can't be trusted'

Investigators documented seven cocaine shipments headed to Saint John during the summer of 2014.They claim either Williams or Kindred or both organised all seven, even though neither man was viewed near any of the transactions when they occurred.

The agent "can't be trusted," said Munro. "He was dealing with organized crime groups in Montreal," he alleged, arguing theevidence showed he is still dealing drugs, still "working the streets."

Reid Chedore, who is representing Kindred, also argued the Crown hasnot established the phone was ever in his client'shands.

The police agent was motivated by self-interest asa paid informer, alleged Chedore. He had opportunity to make "big money," not the "chump change" he had been making, he said.

Chedore arguedprosecutorshadprovided the court with straw that they were asking the court to weaveinto gold. Chedoresuggestedthe Crown is woefully short of that.

Williams and Kindredwere among 28 people arrested by police in September 2014 as part of OperationJ-Tornado.

The trial stretched over 65 non-consecutive days.