A man and a woman from Surrey who barely knew each other before leaving on a three-week trip abroad, carrying suitcases handed to them by a drug-dealing acquaintance who funded the trip, have been convicted of exporting a controlled substance.
Michael Andre Norman Tremblay, 46, and Nadine Fayann Prevost, 33, were originally arrested in 2010, just minutes before they were to step on a plane bound for Australia.
The pair, who recognized one another from hanging out at the same bar and who fed their drug habits via the same individual, were pulled aside by Canada Border Service agents at the Vancouver International Airport on April 10, 2010 after their answers to basic questions set off alarm bells.
The border officers were actually checking for travellers carrying more than $10,000 in cash, but when the stories from the two travelling companions didn't make sense, they were pulled aside for further questioning, and their suitcases removed from the plane and searched.
Inside their luggage, border officers found 7.87 kilograms of ecstasy, also known as MDMA, with a value of around $40,000.
In a B.C. Supreme Court judgement released on Thursday, Justice Gregory J. Fitch found the pair guilty.
According to the ruling, Prevost and Tremblay were hired to make the trip by a drug dealer named Jimmy.
Prevost, a single mother of two teens, one with special needs, said she met Jimmy in a bar through her former husband.
She testified that she was contacted by Jimmy and met with him at the bar, and asked if she would like to go on a trip to Australia with a companion named Mike, someone she recognized from the bar.
She was told she would be Mike's travelling companion, and would be paid $5,000 for the trip.
"She testified she had no reason not to trust Jimmy, that he had never lied to her, and that he spent time with her family. Further, while she knew Jimmy to be a drug dealer, she did not know that Jimmy was involved inthe exportation of drugs. She testified that it never entered her mind that Jimmy would do anything that might cause her to be arrested."
But Justice Fitch rejected her testimony.
"The circumstances, collectively viewed were highly suspicious and I am satisfied that this was apparent to Prevost...In fact, she admitted (to two border officers) she thought something bad could be in the suitcase, knew that the suitcase "wasn't cricket" and was nervous about it when she left for the airport."
Prevost claimed she was ignorant of what was inside the suitcases, making her an "innocent dupe."
"Ms. Prevost was not a credible witness. I do not believe the evidence she gave and would reject it entirely in so far as it concerns her knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the offence."
Tremblay testified he became addicted to pain killers, alcohol and marijuana after a car accident six or seven years ago.
Tremblay, who bought cocaine from Jimmy, said he was approached about the trip about two months prior to the flight.
Tremblay told the court that Jimmy said he would be transporting $250,000 in cash, and that he would be paid on his return.
But Tremblay's testimony that he did not know who he was meeting in Australia, where he was going to meet them, and did not ask Jimmy for any details about these arrangements, "is incredible," Justice Fitch wrote.
"He acknowledged in cross-examination that he understood the money Jimmy wanted transported could have been transferred through financial institutions but testified that he never asked or wondered at the time why he was being asked to do this. His testimony on this point defies common sense. I reject completely his version of events that he thought the purpose of this trip was to transport money on behalf of Jimmy from Australia to India," Finch added.
Ecstasy is a Schedule 1 drug, and an exportation conviction is punishable by up to life in prison.