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The headline is embarrassing for police across the Detroit River: "Windsor police lose $25,000 worth of cocaine."
Sarah Sacheli gives this account in The Windsor Star:
Nine ounces of cocaine worth $25,000 disappeared from the drug vault at Windsor police headquarters and no one can say for certain what happened to it.
The revelation came during a drug trial that concluded earlier this month in Superior Court. In a written decision obtained Wednesday by The Windsor Star, the judge in the case found the accused drug dealer guilty nonetheless, but said the fact police lost track of nine ounces of cocaine “troublesome indeed.”
“The Windsor Police Service allowed $25,000 worth of cocaine to go missing. How did that happen?” said Justice Pamela Hebner. “The only explanation they were able to offer is they assume the substance was destroyed on a day when other such exhibits, no longer needed, were also destroyed.”
A lawyer for the 30-year-old defendant also takes a swipe at the cops:
“I find it suspicious that nine ounces of cocaine would go missing,” [Ken] Marley said. “I find the circumstances suspicious."
This "doesn't happen very frequently," Police Chief Al Frederick says. "I trust my officers. . . . I have full confidence that this was inadvertently destroyed.”
-- Alan Stamm
