Police informant Noel Harder free after pleading guilty to 2018 weapons charges

High-profile Saskatoon police informant Noel Harder is a free man after pleading guilty Thursday to weapons charges from 2018.

Harder served as a police informant and main witness for Project Forseti, the largest organized crime investigation in Saskatchewan history. On Jan. 14, 2014, police raided 19 locations in seven cities. An estimated $8 million worth of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl linked to at least three Saskatoon overdose deaths was seized.

More than a dozen members of the Fallen Saints, Hells Angels and other organizations were charged with a variety of offences.

Harder was the star witness in a case that saw multiple convictions.

On Sept. 25, 2018, the 39-year-old was arrested in the Sutherland neighbourhood after a pedestrian spotted a man in the driver's seat of a Range Rover "racking" a handgun — meaning pulling back its slide to ready it to fire.

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Police arrested Harder charged him with more than a dozen weapons-related charges. Because of his previous role as an informant, he had been kept in solitary confinement since then for his protection.

That all ended Thursday in provincial court in Saskatoon.

Harder pleaded guilty to five charges, most relating to the loaded 9 mm handgun he had in the SUV. Given enhanced credit for the time in custody, he was sentenced to time served.

"The sentence is on the lower end," said prosecutor Melodi Kujawa.

"Mr. Harder was in a very different situation with respect to other prisoners in that he spent over two years in solitary confinement."