The defence lawyers for two alleged kingpins in a high-profile drug trafficking case attacked the credibility of the Crown's key witness during closing arguments in Saint John's Court of Queen's Bench on Wednesday.

Brian Munro described the man as "easily the most untrustworthy, unreliable" witness he had seen in two decades of practising law.

Munro, is representing Shane Williams, 34, of Smithtown, who is jointly on trial with Joshua Kindred, 39, of Saint John for drug possession, drug trafficking and conspiracy in connection with Operation J-Tornado, a three-year investigation into drug trafficking in New Brunswick.

Munro argued the secret police agent, who was Williams' friend at the time, was motivated by money and his testimony should not be given any weight.

The agent, a businessman whose identity was protected by a publication ban despite objections raised by media organizations, including CBC News, was promised nearly $666,000 to distribute Blackberries to suspects, help with the collection of evidence and testify at trials, Munro told the court.

Image | Reid Chedore, defence lawyer for Joshua Kindred at J-Tornado drug trial

Caption: Defence lawyer Reid Chedore argued the Crown's evidence was straw and fell woefully short of the gold it was asking the court to weave. (CBC)

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Suspects were led to believe the smartphones they were given were encrypted, and immune to police surveillance. Instead, emails from the phones were routed directly through RCMP servers, with more than 30,000 messages intercepted and analyzed by police.

Munro pointed out Justice William Grant has only the agent's word that the phones were handed out to the alleged drug dealers and there were no witnesses who actually saw a message being sent by the accused.

In addition, the agent had the passwords, so he could have gotten hold of the phones and sent the messages himself, or even hacked into the phones, Munro submitted.

"What a system," remarked Munro. "It worked beautifully for him."

Investigators documented seven cocaine shipments headed to Saint John during the summer of 2014. They claim either Williams or Kindred or both organised all seven, even though neither man was viewed near any of the transactions when they occurred.

The agent "can't be trusted," said Munro. "He was dealing with organized crime groups in Montreal," he alleged, arguing the evidence showed he is still dealing drugs, still "working the streets."

Reid Chedore, who is representing Kindred, also argued the Crown has not established the phone was ever in his client's hands.

The police agent was motivated by self-interest as a paid informer, alleged Chedore. He had opportunity to make "big money," not the "chump change" he had been making, he said.

​Chedore argued prosecutors had provided the court with straw that they were asking the court to weave into gold. Chedore suggested the Crown is woefully short of that.

Williams and Kindred were among 28 people arrested by police in September 2014 as part of Operation J-Tornado.