Sailboat captain from Hubbards gets 13 years after being caught smuggling cocaine

It was a potential payoff of more than $500,000 that motivated a Canadian sailboat captain to smuggle 250 kilograms of cocaine into Nova Scotia from a small Caribbean island, a judge said Friday as he sentenced Jacques John Grenier to 13 years in prison.

"It was just greed, Mr. Grenier, plain and simple," provincial court Judge Gregory Lenehan told the 69-year-old man.

An expert testified that the drugs — probably purchased from a Mexican drug cartel — had an estimated street value of $20 million.

'Sunset years' to be spent in prison

Grenier, who moved to Nova Scotia in 2015 and was unemployed, had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges: possession for the purposes of trafficking cocaine and importing cocaine. A third charge, conspiracy to import cocaine, was withdrawn.

Lenehan said he took into account Grenier's age, his guilty pleas and the fact that he is battling skin cancer. But the judge said a double-digit sentence was needed to discourage others from using Nova Scotia's craggy coastline as a "soft target" for drug smugglers.

"You're coming to your sunset years," Lenehan told Grenier, a tall, thin man with a swarm of surgical scars above his left eye. "You don't have 30 or 40 years left."

Grenier, a resident of Hubbards, N.S., was arrested late on Sept. 3 after officers with the Canada Border Services Agency boarded his 9.7-metre sailboat Quesera at a small marina near Halifax. Court heard Grenier had sailed the vessel solo from the Dutch side of Sint Maarten, an island east of the Virgin Islands.

Bricks of cocaine stashed in bed frame

The officers found bricks of cocaine hidden beneath a sealed bed frame in the forward sleeping quarters of the Canadian-registered vessel. The RCMP were called in, Grenier was arrested and more cocaine was found hidden throughout the boat.

The judge concluded that Grenier was one of the "middle players" in the smuggling operation.

However, federal Crown attorney Glen Scheuer argued that Grenier was in fact a trusted member of an organized crime ring, noting that Grenier admitted he was responsible for paying the cartel for the drugs and that he was the only person aboard the sailboat when it left the Caribbean.

In an agreed statement of facts, court heard Grenier had purchased the boat after he moved to Nova Scotia and later sailed to Sint Maarten in August 2016.

Grenier admitted that he picked up the cocaine from a fishing boat off the coast of Venezuela last August, then sailed back to Sint Maarten, where he picked up provisions for the voyage home to Nova Scotia.

Earlier in the hearing, RCMP drug expert Joseph Tomeo testified that the drugs were packaged in different colours of plastic wrap, and that each colour had a different level of purity. Tomeo said the cocaine had been mixed with other ingredients, which suggested to him the drugs had come from different labs.

He said this practice is common in Mexico, which stands in contrasts to labs in Colombia, which typically produce cocaine that is more than 80 per cent pure.

Cartel had 'high level of trust' in Grenier

Tomeo, a former staff sergeant who worked in the RCMP's Montreal drug unit for more than 25 years, said the amount of cocaine Grenier was carrying indicated he had strong contacts within the cartel.

"It shows a high level of trust in the individual," Tomeo testified. "And it's extremely rare that this is done alone."

However, Tomeo later told defence lawyer Patrick MacEwen there was no direct evidence that Grenier had done this sort of thing before, even though the experienced sailor had admitted to crossing paths with drug dealers during his travels abroad.

Grenier's sentencing was delayed several times because he underwent surgery and switched lawyers. His sentence was reduced by one year because he had already spent eight months in custody.

A Quebec man, Luc Chevrefils, is also charged in the case. He is expected to stand trial in August.