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Ex-Montreal cop who ran pot-smuggling ring granted parole

By Paul Cherry
Postmedia News
Nov 3, 2011 – 8:32 PM ET
Source - National Post

MONTREAL — A former Montreal police officer and wealthy businessman, who was busted as the head of a marijuana smuggling network, has been granted parole after paying heavily for his crime.

Daniel Lapierre, 63, a member of the Montreal Urban Community police for about a decade, was dinged twice financially for the marijuana trafficking network operating in Quebec, New Brunswick and the U.S. between 2003 and 2005.

As part of a plea bargain agreed to in a federal court in Maine in 2007, Lapierre did not challenge the forfeiture of $4 million U.S. that authorities seized during an investigation that produced the arrests of 26 others.

Work by undercover agents in the U.S. helped the Drug Enforcement Administration unravel the ring. The RCMP assisted on the Canadian side.

Lapierre pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import more than 100 kilograms of marijuana into the U.S. and money laundering.

After serving nearly half his 12-year sentence in the U.S., Lapierre was returned to Canada on April 7 and placed in a Canadian penitentiary near Montreal. A month later, he was charged with transporting the proceeds of crime — the cash made from his marijuana deals — into Canada.

On July 8, he received a 33-month prison term, which he’s serving concurrently to the one he received in the U.S. He also agreed to pay a $850,000 fine.

After surrendering nearly $5 million, Lapierre — a resident of St. Sauveur, Que., when he was arrested in 2005 — told the Parole Board of Canada he planned to work for a company owned by relatives and didn’t anticipate financial difficulties after his release from a minimum-security penitentiary.

According to a summary of his parole hearing, Lapierre told board members Pierre Cadieux and Jacques Bouchard that after serving with MUC police from 1974 to 1984, he went to work in the private sector. In 1986, he landed in Dominican Republic with the goal of building a hotel, a casino and more than 400 seaside condominiums. By 2000, the multi-million-dollar investment was in financial trouble, and Lapierre turned to a life of crime to solve his problems.

He grew marijuana in his basement and purchased it from other growers. Police believed that by November 2003 he was able to ship more than 70 kilograms to the U.S. on a bi-weekly basis.

The marijuana was grown in Quebec, often shipped to New Brunswick and smuggled across the U.S. border.

Lapierre’s marijuana was usually destined for New York City, but sometimes his couriers were delivering it to undercover DEA agents.

The same couriers would smuggle backpacks stuffed with cash back into Canada.

According to the parole board’s summary, Lapierre said he found serving time in U.S. federal penitentiaries difficult because he suffers from health problems, including high blood pressure.

“You recognize that you made an enormous error,” the board members noted. “You don’t minimize the gravity of your involvement.”

They attached two conditions to Lapierre’s release on full parole: He must report his financial information to his parole officer for the remainder of his sentence, and he is not allowed to associate with people who have criminal records.

Correctional Service Canada is not required to reveal when a person who has been granted parole is released from custody.

Postmedia News

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