Trial over purple meth pushed back to spring 2018

A three-day drug trafficking trial centred around the first appearance of “purple meth” in Medicine Hat was pushed back to the spring.

A judge granted the adjournment Wednesday at the request of the Federal Crown and defence counsel for Wayne Arthur Shrubsall and Joshua Munroe.

The pair was arrested Aug. 20, 2016 following an investigation by ALERT, with Shrubsall charged with possessing meth and cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, meth possession, possession of stolen property and breaches. Munroe, 38 was charged with possessing meth and cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possessing fentanyl.

In September of this year, the Crown laid the additional charges against the pair, including conspiracy to traffic — and provided late notice to defence counsel about an expert they wanted to use at trial.

Shrubsall’s defence counsel didn’t consent to allowing this expert’s addition at such short notice, requiring the Crown to seek an adjournment. Meanwhile, Munroe’s defence counsel did not object to the Crown’s addition of an expert, but also requested an adjournment due to the addition of a new defence witness they wanted to call.

Despite the arrests occurring more than a year ago, the Crown stated they are not worried about the delays being a cause for the courts to dismiss the case due to the Jordan ruling, as delays have mainly been by the accused — Shrubsall had originally been working on a plea deal for months, but fired his lawyer in January.

Munroe is on release, while Shrubsall remains in custody — he is currently serving a two-and-a-half year jail sentence in Saskatchewan for drug trafficking charges that stem back to a cross-border police investigation in Dec. 2014.

The new trial was set Thursday in court for April 12, 13 and 16 2018.