Canada - ~Fourth conviction for Project Underground police drug sweep~
From the prisoner's box, Brian Burrett looked at his mother sitting in the courtroom's front row, shook his head and said: "I made the wrong decisions in life."
One of those decisions -- trafficking copious amounts of cocaine in Peterborough and Toronto -- landed the 41-year-old a seven-year prison sentence minus time served yesterday.
Burrett's guilty plea in Ontario Court of Justice marked the fourth conviction for Project Underground, a multi-agency drug sweep targeting Peterborough's cocaine dealing.
The project began with an investigation into 58-year-old Robert Pammett's association with the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang, federal prosecutor Barry Nordin said.
It culminated in the raid and seizure of Pammett's McNamara Road home March 26 and the arrest of nearly a dozen people from Peterborough and Toronto.
Pammett's associate of 20 years sparked Project Underground when he agreed to become a police informant, court heard.
Mervyn Monteith, 45, became police agent 3951 and was paid to help make the police case against Pammett.
Monteith was also Burrett's coaccused in Project 4, a police investigation that infiltrated a massive drug network in the Peterborough area in June 2005.
Burrett got two years and three months in prison in May 2006 for his role. Monteith's charges were stayed.
When the Bandidos disbanded in Ontario last fall, Project Underground shifted its organized crime focus to the Peterborough drug trade, Nordin said.
Monteith and Burrett met many times to arrange the sale and purchase of cocaine, court heard.
On Jan. 8, Monteith purchased 18 ounces of cocaine for $22,500 at a truck stop in Bowmanville.
On. Jan. 23, he purchased a kilogram of cocaine for about $40,000 at a truck stop in Port Hope.
On March 4, he bought another kilogram for $40,000 in the parking lot of a Toronto pizza restaurant.
Burrett was still on parole from his prison release while he was arranging the drug deals, court heard.
Mr. Justice Robert Graydon accepted a joint submission from Nordin and lawyer Ken Smith calling for the seven-year sentence minus five months of pre-sentence custody. Burrett won't be eligible for parole until he serves at least half his prison term, Graydon ordered.
Smith wanted the record to show that Burrett wasn't associated with any outlaw motorcycle gangs.
"He loathes and detests bikers ... he wishes they would all die in hell," Smith said. "If anything he was in competition with them."
Addressing the court before sentencing, Burrett said he would do things differently if he could.
"If I could go back in time, I would," Burrett told court.
Pammett and his remaining coaccused will appear again in court Oct. 30.
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