Court hears intercepted phone calls on day 3 of Lafferty drug trafficking trial

On Sept. 21, Mary Anne Lafferty was convicted of 8 counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking. Vitaline Lafferty was acquitted of the same charges.

Evidence heard in the N.W.T. Supreme Court on Friday does not indicate whether or not a mother and daughter accused of trafficking drugs were aware they were going to pick up drugs.

The court heard audio recordings of phone calls between convicted drug ring "kingpin" Todd Dube and the daughter of one of the accused, Mary Anne Lafferty. The evidence doesn't show whether the accused knew they were going to pick up drugs.

Vitaline Lafferty, 79, and Mary Anne Lafferty, 58, are on trial for eight counts each of possessing and trafficking marijuana, cocaine, MDMA and codeine. The two were arrested outside of Fort Providence, N.W.T., after police found packages containing drugs in a vehicle they were driving on March 18, 2016.

Jurors in the trial, which began Sept. 12 in Yellowknife, heard the women had been driving back to Yellowknife from Alberta when their blue Ford Escape sport-utility vehicle was stopped at an RCMP checkstop.

On Friday, the jury heard phone audio clips of Dube and roughly 10 other people identified by RCMP as part of a federal investigation known as "Green Manalishi."

It's [not] normal to have several large quantities of drugs.- Cpl. Len Larson

In the phone recordings, court heard Dube speaking with a man named "Eddy" regarding where near the N.W.T border he should meet "two older women in a blue crossover SUV."

Court also heard Mary Anne and Vitaline's voices in the intercepted phone calls, days before their arrest. Neither woman talked with Dube about picking up drugs or knowing where they were going.

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Drugs '100 per cent' likely to be sold: expert

Also on Friday, court heard expert testimony suggesting it was "100 percent" likely the drugs seized at the RCMP checkstop were going to be sold.

Crown attorney Duane Praught called Cpl. Len Larson, in charge of street patrol and drug trafficking for the RCMP, to testify.

On March 18, 2016, Larson had been called by the RCMP federal investigation unit in Yellowknife to assist with operation Green Manalishi​. He testified that he wrote two files about the accused women's involvement with the operation.

Larson was qualified by Justice Shannon Smallwood as an expert in the production, management and packing of marijuana, cocaine and MDMA. Larson was not qualified as an expert in those fields as it related to codeine.

All four substances were found in the blue Ford Escape, which the jury heard was registered to Vitaline Lafferty.

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The jury was shown photos of the drugs in court. The cocaine was divided into two bags — one with 13 separate packages, all presumably weighing two to three ounces, estimated Larson. RCMP found a total of 1.7 kilograms in the vehicle at the time of the arrest. In court, Larson estimated one kilogram could have cost "$45,000 to $67,000" in 2016.

"No one is going to spend $50,000 for personal use of cocaine," said Larson in court.

Larson and the jury were also shown pictures of the MDMA taken from the scene. There were roughly three ounces of the drug confiscated from the car. Larson estimated the street value for an ounce of MDMA in 2016 was between $250 to $400.

There were also three vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana, which Larson told court was roughly worth $6,000.

"It's [not] normal to have several large quantities of drugs," Larson testified. "If a person possessed all [large amounts] of four drugs, it would be for the purpose of trafficking."

The trial will continue on Monday.