Vancouver Police Put
Prohibitionism Above Patriotism –
Use US Navy Agents In Attempt To Entrap Hemp BC
See
Prohibitionist
Vancouver Mayor Will Not Participate In Meeting To Cancel Sister Icee’s Licenses
– 2 Articles
From the Vancouver Province
provedpg@pacpress.southam.ca
http://www.vancouverprovince.com/newsite/news-c.html
September 17, 1998
By Jack Keating, Staff Reporter(Ed. note: Even the prohibitionist
Vancouver Province seems to have been offended by this undermining of Canadian sovereignty
by US narco-imperialism, but to Canadian and US narcs Canada is just another banana
republic. This could have major repercussions in Canada. If it doesn’t, then it may
end up just another banana republic with a subservience to prohibitionism, like DEAland
itself.)
See
New
Party Line In Prohibitionist Propaganda For DEAland/Canada Border
(Disguised As Journalism In Vancouver)
CITY COPS USE US AGENTS IN DRUG BUST
Use of foreign investigators ‘bizarre, chilling’
Vancouver police used U.S. military undercover agents to gather evidence for a
marijuana bust at Hemp B.C. and the Cannabis Cafe.
Court documents show that four U.S. Navy undercover agents were used in an attempt to
buy marijuana and then smoke it at the internationally known emporiums in the 300-block of
West Hastings.
The four agents were named in an application for a search warrant that led to a raid on
the stores on April 30. The documents show the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service
agents worked in a joint operation with Vancouver police in April.
Jim Millar, lawyer for Shelley Francis, who owns the stores, called the use of the U.S.
agents "absolutely bizarre."
"Politically, it raises real issues about having the
American war on drugs coming across our border to a [hemp] store. The fact that the
Vancouver police department is using U.S. military intelligence agents as undercover
agents on our city streets and on our sovereign turf is a chilling prospect."
Vancouver Const. Anne Drennan, who said earlier that Vancouver undercover officers were
used, now confirms that the force used agents from the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative
Service in the operations.
"Yes, in fact there were naval officers involved," she said.
The use of U.S. agents "raises questions about who is really
driving drug policy in Vancouver—who is really controlling drug policy in
Vancouver," said Neil Boyd, professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University.
"It gives the impression that part of the American government is interested in
being involved in regulating Canadian criminal law," Federal authorities were also
surprised.
"It’s not common at all that I’m aware of to use foreign
investigators," said Bob Prior, head of the justice department’s
criminal-prosecution section in Vancouver, which swore the charges—three of
possession and sale of drug paraphernalia—against Francis. The trial is set for July
19.
The court documents say the navy agents were escorted to Hemp
B.C., "where they shopped for merchandise and tried to buy marijuana." They
bought drugs elsewhere in Vancouver, the documents show.
George Roberts, the assistant special agent in charge of the NCIS in the Pacific
northwest, said his agents work with local police when U.S. ships are in port "so
that local people who might be trafficking in drugs don’t want to sell to navy
people."
"We’re not up there enforcing our laws or your laws," he said.
More than 3,400 sailors from the USS Constellation and the USS Rainier were in
Vancouver in April.
Millar, meanwhile, says he’ll file an application in B.C. Supreme Court today to
quash the search warrant.
Supported