Judge sees no entrapment in trafficking case

A convicted drug trafficker was not the victim of entrapment despite the use of a controversial police agent with a violent past, a B.C. Supreme Court justice ruled on Tuesday.

The ruling upholds the conviction of Douglas Lawrence Ketch, who was found guilty of drug trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking in October. Ketch was the target of an undercover RCMP sting called project E-Piracy which involved a convicted criminal turned police agent named Matthew Holland.

Holland, of Victoria, was paid more than $130,000 for his role in the sting, in which he communicated with Ketch for 10 months about buying one kilogram of cocaine.

Defence lawyer Michael Mulligan was fighting to stay his client’s conviction on the grounds that Ketch was entrapped by the RCMP.

Mulligan argued that “project E-Piracy did not detect a crime, it manufactured one.”

Holland had a financial motive to pressure Ketch to sell one kilogram of cocaine, Mulligan said. Holland, who testified during Ketch’s trial that he may have killed two men and viciously attacked people to settle drug debts, also used his violent reputation as an implicit threat against Ketch if the drugs were not supplied, Mulligan said.

Federal Crown prosecutor John Walker said the police investigation was not about suddenly turning Ketch into a drug trafficker, “it’s about interrupting what Mr. Ketch is already believed to be doing.”

“The fact that somebody can produce a kilogram of cocaine means they’re already engaged in the business of trafficking cocaine,” Walker told the court.

Holland and Ketch met in the Costco parking lot in Langford on April 3, 2014, where Ketch supplied one kilogram of cocaine in exchange for $51,000 in cash. Immediately after the transaction, a police tactical team swarmed Ketch’s car and arrested him. An additional kilogram of cocaine was found in his car.

In reaching her decision on entrapment, Justice Joyce DeWittVan Oosten had to consider whether the police went beyond providing the opportunity for an offence, but actually induced or manufactured an offence.

DeWitt-Van Oosten acknowledged that the 10-month investigation was “dogged” and persistent, but found it did not amount to entrapment.

The judge said the law is clear that “the fact of a paid agent does not render the police tactics abusive.” She pointed to other cases where police agents have been established as a valuable tool in nabbing drug traffickers.

A police agent is different from an informant in that he or she actively participates in the investigation under close police observation, instead of just providing information to police.

The RCMP is aware of Holland’s convictions for manslaughter, home invasion robberies, property crimes and drug offences.

In his cross-examination during Ketch’s trial, Holland testified that he “assumes” he has killed two people.

In one case, Holland said he severely beat a stranger who picked him up while he was hitchhiking on the Malahat.

In the other case, he said he repeatedly stomped on a man’s head behind a nightclub in Courtenay.

In both cases, Holland said the two men looked or seemed dead but he couldn’t be sure. Holland was never arrested or charged. However, a man has come forward saying he was severely beaten behind the Courtenay House in 2007. Perry Gallagher is asking the Comox Valley RCMP to investigate his case.

While acknowledging that Holland is an “intimidating character,” he did not use threats, violence, weapons or acts of aggression during his interactions with Ketch, DeWitt-Van Oosten found.

After apologizing to Holland for not being able to produce the cocaine fast enough, Ketch reached out to set up the final transaction.

DeWitt-Van Oosten said there was no evidence the police exploited Ketch’s personal characteristics or vulnerability.