Unlocking of cellphones prompts guilty plea by cocaine dealer

Police could not definitively prove Justin George James and a London drug dealer named Primo were one in the same man. Then came new technology that allowed them to unlock his cellphones. James pleaded guilty Monday in a Windsor courtroom to possession of marijuana and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Having already spent more than two years in jail awaiting trial, he was sentenced to time served. James’s guilty plea came in the midst of his trial with two other men where James was the accused cocaine supplier for a cross-border criminal organization trafficking in drugs and guns.

James, 35, had proclaimed his innocence for more than two years since his February 2016 arrest. Then prosecutors put James’s lawyer on notice Friday that they had new evidence. Armed with a search warrant, they had unlocked his iPhones and now had the password for his BlackBerry that contained text messages arranging the very drug transaction undercover officers had witnessed.

“You are the person that the Crown has alleged is Primo,” Superior Court Justice Steven Rogin said.

James has been on trial with Franco Carmelo Marentette-DeRose, 29, and Marentette-DeRose’s uncle, Donilo Frank Marentette, 52.

The men, and others, were arrested following a yearlong sting operation dubbed Project Kirby that used a police agent wearing a wire who posed as a drug buyer and an undercover police officer posing as a man wanting to buy guns smuggled in from the United States.

Last month, Adonios (Tony) Coutsogiannakis, 53, pleaded guilty to stashing cocaine for Marentette-DeRose, the accused ring leader. In jail for a short stint before being released on bail, Coutsogiannakis was sentenced to a further 23 months in jail. Another player caught up in the sting, Kevin Lewis, 31, who went by the nickname Bubba, is currently serving a penitentiary term after admitting he trafficked in cocaine and is expected to be a Crown witness at Marentette and Marentette-DeRose’s trial. On Monday, James admitted he came to Windsor on Feb. 25, 2016, and met with Marentette-DeRose on Arthur Street. Police were watching as James got out of his Lexus carrying a bag and got into Marentette-Derose’s Lincoln. The Lincoln drove around the block and dropped James back at his Lexus three minutes later. Fifteen minutes later, Marentette-DeRose pulled up to a car being driven by Coutsogiannakis. In a raid on Coutsogiannakis’s Borelli Drive home the next day, police seized 887 grams of cocaine Coutsogiannakis admitted he had gotten from Marentette-DeRose in the transaction police witnessed. Police raided James’s King Street apartment in London and found $21,620, scales and a debt list. They also found 16 grams of marijuana and ammunition for a 9-mm pistol. In addition to forfeiting the money found, James was ordered Monday to pay $400 in fines that go toward programs to help victims of crime.

The trial of Marentette-DeRose and his uncle continues.