Yukon RCMP sent drug dealer turned agent on Mexican holiday

Territorial court judge Karen Ruddy has reserved her decision until next month in the trial of a Vernon, B.C., man charged with trafficking in cocaine.

Forty-­two-year-old Jason McMillan was charged after a kilogram of cocaine was seized in Whitehorse. Police say his fingerprints were on the package and on a bag the package was in.

The cocaine was seized at the start of a major RCMP operation called Project Monolith at the end of August in 2013.

The police had just signed a contract with a major drug dealer in Whitehorse. He had agreed to go from an informant to an undercover agent for the RCMP.

Cpl. Lindsay Ellis is the primary investigator on Project Monolith. In court Wednesday, she testified the goal was to break up a major supply line of cocaine into the Yukon. The police also wanted to gather enough evidence to arrest the three alleged gang leaders based in the Surrey, B.C., area.

Ellis told the court the RCMP's newly-recruited agent was one of the few Yukon dealers trusted by the leader. She said that made it difficult for the dealer to end all criminal activity.

He had been instructed by his police handlers to stop all drug dealing. But he told them he had to deal with a separate kilogram of cocaine delivered to Whitehorse on August 6, or his drug bosses would become suspicious.

Ellis said at that point the RCMP sent him on a holiday to Mexico to give him a legitimate excuse for leaving the territory and to get him away from his drug associates.

He returned to Canada later that August and finalized his contract with the RCMP. He then became the one who picked up the package with McMillan's fingerprint. He turned it over to the police.

The man is in the Witness Protection Program and a court order protects his identity from being reported.

Dispute over prints on package

In court Wednesday, a witness testified he had seen McMillan at a meeting in Whitehorse with drug associates several weeks before the cocaine was seized.

The prosecution has to convince the judge that McMillan had possession of the package in the Yukon.

Prosecutor Eric Marcoux said the totality of the evidence proved that.

Defense lawyer Jeremy Guild however argued there's no clear proof McMillan was in Yukon at the time or had driven the drug up to the territory.

McMillan's print on the package was on some tape that was covered over when it was heat sealed. Guild said if McMillan touched the tape, it almost certainly happened in B.C. He said the Petro­-Canada plastic bag the package was in is available across Canada.

Judge Ruddy said she expects to deliver a written decision on Sept. 11.