Airport-meth case tied to impugned cop
Defence counsel in drug-trafficking prosecution seeks additional disclosure about anonymous source because Mountie accused of corruption was involved as handler
Lawyers for three defendants in a crystal-meth case from late 2023 are asking a judge to order additional disclosure about an anonymous source because a Mountie under prosecution was a handler for that source.
Matthew William Harris, 46, of Main Street in Meductic; Robert “Rob” Louis Michaud, 54, of no fixed address but formerly of Grand Falls; and Adrienne Susan Dickison, 33, of Route 122 in Dow Settlement; are scheduled to stand trial in provincial court later this summer on a Nov. 23, 2023, joint charge of possession of crystal meth for the purpose of trafficking.
The trio was arrested at the Fredericton International Airport in Lincoln on that date, and the RCMP alleges officers seized a significant quantity of crystal meth after the defendants arrived back in the capital region after a flight.
Alex Pate, defence counsel for Harris, filed an application with the provincial court recently seeking additional disclosure, and the parties appeared before Judge Mélanie Poirier LeBlanc on Tuesday to argue the motion.
Pate - joined by lawyers Emily Cochrane and Michael Mallory, who are representing Dickison and Michaud, respectively - is asking the judge to order the Crown to divulge additional information about a key, confidential source who purportedly tipped police off about a defendant’s transport of the crystal meth on a flight from British Columbia to Fredericton.