B.C. judge tosses drug case, says U.S. agents broke law and violated Canadian sovereignty

538

At a guess, I think the lack of collaboration with or transparency towards the RCMP was the sticking issue here.

548

u/Darromear 19h ago

I read the article. It's entrapment. The cops came to his door, brought him to their office, and literally told him to launder money for them. And now they're punishing him for it.

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u/BananasPineapple05 19h ago edited 18h ago

Not U.S. cops doing what U.S. cops do. /s

I was just saying that the RCMP carries a lot of weight in law-enforcement circles. I can see judges siding with them faster than understanding the plight of one person, no matter how innocent that person is.

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u/zero573 18h ago

RCMP would be pissed about the US law enforcement tossing bullshit around violating rights just to just to charge. Outside agency or cross boarder police doing shitty policing makes good officers jobs harder. I’ve heard RCMP go off when you bring up stuff like this. There are enough shit heads out there doing shitty things to investigate that you don’t need to create problems so you can be the guy that “fix’s” them. No one hates lazy fuck up cops more than actual good officers, and doing things like this gets you ostracized pretty quick from your coworkers.

38

u/BoldestKobold 16h ago

doing things like this gets you ostracized pretty quick from your coworkers

Too bad this isn't true in the US, for the most part. If anything, the opposite seems more common. Those who "rock the boat" get ostracized instead, regardless of intent.

0

u/Lopsided-Total-5560 5h ago

I will respectfully disagree. I’m a retired cop. I spent 30 years doing that job and there’s nothing more hated than a dirty cop. Yes, there are dirty cops and there are departments where it is pervasive. It is more of a rarity though than the echo chamber will have you believe. I finished my career in internal affairs and I fired everyone that committed a crime (convicted or not) or committed a serious policy violation. We didn’t play around with that shit.

5

u/Gwen_The_Destroyer 2h ago

I wonder where all you good guys were when I was molested by two male officers at an illegal traffic stop. That was 10 years ago and they're still in uniform.

0

u/IThinkRightLeft 3h ago

Thank you sir

16

u/Darromear 19h ago

Unfortunately likely

28

u/Fun-Result-6343 19h ago

He'd better keep in mind that he needs to spend his vacation dollars in Canada from now on. I expect that he'd be a marked man pretty much anywhere else.

5

u/Mr_ToDo 17h ago

I wonder about that. If he's a Canadian citizen and the crime was Canadian, along with the "you fucked up bro" ruling here, would a third party extradite them? Is there a check with the home country when something like that comes up?

12

u/Fun-Result-6343 15h ago

The Americans want him. He can't make his way into the US or risk a plane trip that might somehow end up in the US. After that its about finding out if any other state would honour an American extradition request. Travel roulette.

3

u/str8clay 13h ago

If his case was tossed here, wouldn't double jeopardy prevent him from being tried in the US?

9

u/Fun-Result-6343 13h ago

He's never been tried in the US. Double jeopardy doesn't attach across international borders.

3

u/DoxFreePanda 13h ago

However, it'll almost certainly be a diplomatic incident, and Canada would absolutely file a competing claim for his safe return.

1

u/Platnun12 5h ago

I like to think of the situation kind of like that season finale of trailer park boys caught between the US and the Canadian mounties

Both sides literally telling Ricky and Julian what would happen which really feels like this situation

1

u/Master-Rent5050 9h ago

Seems much worse than entrapment: more like "forcing someone to commit crimes".

125

u/Yuukiko_ 19h ago

Idk, "the DEA was leading him into criminal conduct" sounds like entrapment to me

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u/BananasPineapple05 19h ago

Because it is.

I'm just saying the RCMP has a lot of influence in law-enforcement circles. It's obviously not acceptable for anyone to be entraped, but it happens in Canada, too.

16

u/zero573 18h ago

To be fair though what you and I might feel like entrapment can be legally different. I’ve heard previous coworkers cry about bait cars/bikes are entrapment. “If they weren’t there then I wouldn’t have don’t that”. But in the US, when you have agents acting in bad faith, try to encourage illegal behaviour and then provide them the means to carry it out is fucking disgraceful.

If anyone is encouraging you to do something wrong, think about why that might be. Doesn’t matter who it is, there is always a shitty reason behind why anyone would encourage a person to do something bad.

24

u/beardriff 18h ago

During the RCMP operation "foresti" the feds took Noel Harder, a known drug dealer, involved in a murder and was caught smuggling guns in 2014, and got him to start his own motorcycle club and recruit people. I know alot of the dudes that went to jail, they weren't drug dealers before the RCMP and Noel came along.

The RCMP created crime. Noel was placed in witness protection, and people went to jail. Conviently after a bounty was placed on his head, the government pronounced him dead.

0 crimes would have been committed by The Fallen Saints if the RCMP did not instruct him to start it. The only people who did real time was the puppet club. The two HA members didn't serve much time.

This was entrapment that was fully legal

1

u/Yuukiko_ 18h ago

People actually argue that bait cars/bikes are entrapment?

7

u/cutetys 18h ago edited 18h ago

Oh yeah. A lot of people’s understandings of what the law says are fairly inconsistent with the actual law, include their understanding of entrapment. I’ve seen people argue that sting operations like this one are entrapment, despite the fact that such stings didn’t even ask anyone to break the law, they just lured people who were already wanted to a place where it was easier to arrest.

5

u/JimJam28 18h ago

Did you see the bike was wearing?!

3

u/Superb-Home2647 16h ago

The RCMP did it to a couple a few years back. They provided people with the idea and means to make an explosive, and then charged them for making said explosives. Those people had all their charges thrown out as well.

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u/Tower-Union 19h ago

The entrapment, the criminal conspiracy committed by the DEA, and the operating on Canadian soil after lying to the RCMP.

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u/Fun-Result-6343 19h ago

Canadian sovereignty was the primary issue. The Americans decided to go outside Canadian law while being aware that they were obliged instead to work under the appropriate supervision/authority of Canadian law enforcement while in Canada.

I'm interested in also knowing what happened to the two Canadian officers who overstepped themselves.

17

u/MetaTrombonist 18h ago

Yet another policy brought in under Stephen Harper that should LONG ago have been dumped. Hopefully now the feds will revisit the so called "North American Perimeter Security Pact" and cancel any aspects of it that impinge on Canadian sovereignty.

8

u/Fun-Result-6343 15h ago

Cooperation is important, but American arrogance will kill it.

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u/Satansleadguitarist 18h ago edited 18h ago

Wait, are you telling me that an American federal agency didn't respect foreign borders? Crazy...

65

u/bluAstrid 18h ago

These bozos think they’re the world police.

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u/Jay-Willi-Wam 17h ago

What do you mean?

There's a whole documentary about it.

I think it was called "Team America"

4

u/Enki_007 11h ago

Fuck yeah!

10

u/Yuukiko_ 16h ago

And then they'll complain that they're being treated as the world police

1

u/Readinglateatmorning 5h ago

My federal taxes!

1

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 5h ago

Agreed. They change the story to fit whatever narrative suits them in the moment.

44

u/BigDrewbot 16h ago

seems like Canada should try to extradite 'jane doe'. be nice if SOMEBODY held our out-of-control US federal agencies accountable for their actions since it sure isn't going to be the US DOJ

3

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 5h ago

If we did that, Trump and Maga would scream, and there'd be a new round of tariffs.

1

u/youngboomergal 3h ago

Canada is a nasty Country! 100% tariffs!

29

u/SnuffleWarrior 13h ago

The US agents should be arrested

8

u/xShooK 10h ago

Canadian police also assisted, out of jurisdiction as well according to the judge.

29

u/LostWin9933 19h ago

Someone is having the best day ever (not the dea )

9

u/InadequateUsername 14h ago

They'll just need to avoid the US forever

3

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 5h ago

Key to a safe and happy life.

8

u/Shr3kk_Wpg 11h ago

What about the 2 Canadian detectives working with the DEA? Did they face any repercussions for their conduct?

9

u/EmergencyGrocery3238 13h ago

What's the consequences for agents who broke the law?

6

u/blifflesplick 9h ago

Paid vacation, traditionally

3

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 5h ago edited 4h ago

Potential "punishments", listed in order of likelihood:

None.

Paid vacation.

Temporary demotion in pay scale, set to end after one year, secretly ended after the media stops paying attention.

For worst case scenarios, they get fired, move to a different part of the country, and end up working for another law enforcement agency 2 months later.

3

u/2daytrending 3h ago

Hard to argue for the rule of law when your own agent decide the rules don't apply across the border.

4

u/DaneLimmish 5h ago

Americans attempting to act with impunity within another country? Nobody could have guessed.

1

u/craigske 3h ago

Persona non grata. Expel the DEA entirely.

-33

u/Consistent-Fix-8443 15h ago

American police are allowed to lie , in Canada they are not .

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u/Fit_Equivalent3610 15h ago

That is not true and was not the basis on which the case was tossed. Case law in Canada clarifies that police can freely lie to you, just like in most other commonwealth countries.

They can lie about, for example, the existence of evidence or witness statements, the results of tests of evidence, the consequences of conviction, whether something is a crime, and basically anything else they say to you.

Suggesting that police can't lie in Canada is seriously dangerous to any Canadian who believes you, delete this comment.

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u/Consistent-Fix-8443 11h ago

Oh so Canada isn’t so superior to the US , and Canadians can be as dumb as Americans. Ok then .

6

u/Icy-Computer-Poop 5h ago

People like you who spout that nonsense always latch on to one exception while ignoring the hundreds of others that they find problematic.

Canada didn't elect a convicted felon, rapist, and heavily-suspected pedophile to lead them. Twice.

6

u/NormalSociety 8h ago

When you are trying to type English, just know that there are no spaces between the last letter and a punctuation mark. Also, for the future, there isn't two spaces between sentences. A period, space, then the first word, capitalized of course.

1

u/DeaDGoDXIV 1h ago

I graduated in 2004, they were still teaching two spaces between sentences back then. I still do two spaces, as so most of my friends my age.

-69

u/ledorky 17h ago

I'm a bit torn. I dislike the lack of cooperation between the DEA and the RCMP but drug traffickers are scum and should be jailed.

48

u/Eric_EarlOfHalibut 17h ago

The DEA pressured a dude to launder money accross the border to their target person. Then they made him the target person.

I wonder if something fell through with the person they were originally after.

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u/_Solani_ 16h ago

Sure the DEA may have violated Canada's sovereignty but think of the big picture, they caught a drug dealer which is obviously way more important than a silly little thing like consent. And yea sure they technically said no but that doesn't matter because the DEA was on a mission and the war on drugs knows no borders.

Canada isn't even a real country anyways so who like even cares what their laws say, we're American! 🇺🇲 👮‍♀️

Sarcasm aside, what is it with Americans and casually ignoring our sovereignty lately. Like I'm positive if the RCMP was working a case in the US without permission you guys would lose your bloody minds, but when your country is doing it you're just 'a bit torn'. 🤦‍♀️

14

u/waaaayupyourbutthole 15h ago

what is it with Americans and casually ignoring our sovereignty lately?

I mean, add your country to the pile. When has the US ever given a fuck about any country's sovereignty if they think they can get away with something? We've backed coups and started wars all over the globe in an attempt to get what we want. The only thing that's new is we're doing it to a country that's not already in some sort of turmoil and has the capability of fighting back.

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u/Icy-Computer-Poop 5h ago

So you're torn because you think it should be ok for law enforcement to ignore the law, just so long as they catch a suspected drug trafficker. Wow.

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u/ledorky 4h ago

My cousin who I was close to died from a drug overdose so I guess I'm looking at it differently.

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u/Icy-Computer-Poop 4h ago

Sorry about your loss. Don't let it cause you to lose perspective too.

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u/Hacketed 1h ago

Emotionally you mean, read the article when you cool down

B.C. judge tosses drug case, says U.S. agents broke law and violated Canadian sovereignty

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