3 years later, B.C. man's drug trial finally begins in Yellowknife
Hassen Mohamed facing cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana charges dating back to 2015 raids in Yellowknife
More than three years after he was charged, a man accused of drug dealing in Yellowknife is finally getting his day in court.
The prosecutor opened his case against Hassen Abdul Kerim Mohamed with three police witnesses testifying on Monday.
Mohamed, from Burnaby, B.C., was arrested April 15, 2015 after an RCMP emergency response team bashed in the door of a Finlayson Drive townhouse in Yellowknife, and found Mohamed leaving the upstairs bathroom.
Though the arresting officer did not notice it as he cuffed Mohamed on the bathroom floor, another officer later pointed out to him there was a bag containing a white, powdered substance on the floor between his legs.
The 50-year-old's trial was about to begin almost a year ago. But just as it started, Mohamed fired his lawyer saying he wanted a jury trial and was surprised to find it was before a judge only.
This week, Mohamed's trial is taking place before Justice Shannon Smallwood with no jury.
3 police officers testify Monday
On Monday, Smallwood heard testimony from three of the eight RCMP officers the Crown is relying on to make its case. The three were part of an emergency response team that raided the Finlayson Drive home.
They testified they used a battering ram to break open the back door and tossed a flash bang — a grenade-like device that emits a flash of light and a loud shotgun like blast — to distract the occupants.
Investigators found cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana and two cellphones in the house. Another man who police had targeted in the search, William Nelson Castro, jumped out a second storey window of the home but was arrested by police, according to the officers who testified.
Reading an agreed statement of facts, prosecutor Duane Praught told the judge the RCMP extracted data from the two phones in the house. There's been no evidence so far on what they found.
For almost a month leading up to the raid, police had been monitoring a storage unit rented in Castro's name. When they searched the unit, they found more drugs — 538 grams of crack cocaine, 175 grams of powdered cocaine and 502 fentanyl tablets, according to the statement.
Castro was sentenced to six years in prison for his part in the operation.
Mohamed's trial is scheduled to continue for the rest of the week.