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By Joe Fries
Seemingly ordinary calls to BCAA and Mastercard may prove extraordinarily useful for the Crown as it tries to prove its case against three people charged with running a Kelowna-based cocaine trafficking ring.
The Crown has pinned its hopes on 274 phone calls and text messages that it says will prove Thomas Fraser, Jason Herrick and Margo Safadi were dealing cocaine, and did so for the benefit of their criminal organization. Mounties working on Project E-Pistachio intercepted the communications between July 11, 2006, and August 17, 2006.
RCMP Const. Steve Poohachoff testified Tuesday morning that he was in charge of the Southeast District Drug Section’s monitoring room where the calls and texts were intercepted, recorded and summarized by civilian employees. He told the court he listened to between 5,000 and 7,000 calls during the operation.
As Crown counsel John Walker played some of the calls at the second day of trial this morning, Poohachoff stated who he thought was speaking, but didn’t translate the coded language used.
In the first call, Fraser told Herrick he was planning a trip to the coast and needed “paper” – an apparent code word for money.
Herrick told Fraser he didn’t have any, then the two discussed what they were owed by others. The next three calls featured Herrick calling other associates to try to round up some “paper.”
Herrick is also heard arranging meetings with others, including one at a McDonalds restaurant that cops attended after learning about it through the wiretap.
“Don’t come just yet,” Herrick told his contact a little later. “There’s cops sitting at the entrance.”
In a bid to prove the identities of the callers, the Crown later played a call in which a man who identified himself as Thomas Fraser, the group’s alleged ringleader, called BCAA because his vehicle needed a jump-start. He told the operator his was the only “big, black Hummer” in the parking lot of the Penticton Lakeside Resort. The Crown previously filed documents linking Fraser to a vehicle fitting that description.
The Crown also played a recording of a call between a man who identified himself as Jason Herrick and an employee at a Mastercard call centre. Herrick, the man the Crown says was responsible for the group’s day-to-day operations, was trying to free up room on his credit card in order to rent a car.
The operator asked Herrick what he did for a living, to which he replied: “I’m self-employed.”
The operator then asked him about the nature of the business.
“I own a delivery company,” Herrick said, later adding it was called Nice Boys Deliveries.
Earlier on, a potential flaw appeared in the Crown’s case when Const. Poohachoff admitted under cross-examination that he instigated a chance meeting with Fraser at the Penticton courthouse on July 4 before the wiretap became active. Poohachoff said he knew Fraser was due in court that day, and sought him out to engage him in conversation so he could get an ear for Fraser’s voice.
However, the officer admitted that he never identified himself as a cop and never informed Fraser of his Charter right that he had no obligation to speak to police.
Two other accused, Brent Nagy and Mark Zagar, are being tried separately in September.
The trial continues today.
joe@kelowna.com
250-575-4303
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One Response to “‘I’m self-employed,’ alleged cocaine dealer tells credit-card company”
Tags: brent nagy, cocaine, criminal organization, drugs, Jason Herrick, john walker, Margo Safadi, mark zagar, Thomas Fraser
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This is what the cops are supposed to be doing. Bust the real dealers leave the citizens who are smoking a joint alone they are not hurting anyone.
Please continue discussion on the forum: link