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Four appear in court on charges of inter-provincial drug trafficking

TARA BRADBURY THE TELEGRAM tara.bradbury @thetelegram.com @tara_bradbury

Four people were arrested and then released from custody in St. John’s Wednesday in connection with an alleged drug trafficking and money laundering operation between Newfoundland and Labrador and two other provinces.

Jordan Alexander Langdon, Katie Marie Tucker, Justin Shane Parsons and Barry Nolan made appearances in provincial court in St. John’s — Nolan by phone from the city lockup and the others in person — having been arrested as part of the RCMP’S Project Barnacle.

Police issued a media advisory in February, saying it had worked with other law enforcement agencies to execute search warrants at three homes in this province — one in Torbay and two in St. John’s — and two homes in Ontario — one in Etobicoke and one in Mississauga.

Seized in the local raids were a stolen handgun, five long guns — including an unsecured, modified semiautomatic rifle next to a bed — and approximately 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Police also found approximately 12 lbs of MDMA (ecstasy), which they say is one of the largest amounts ever seized in N.L., and an estimated $250,000 in cash, believed to be the proceeds of crime. The Mounties also seized nine vehicles, prescription pills, cocaine, credit card readers, high-end jewelry, a money counter, financial documents and various electronic devices.

In Ontario, where two men and a woman were arrested earlier in the year, police seized about $10,000 in cash as well as items they believe are indicative of money laundering.

Those seizures were a follow-up to a cocaine trafficking investigation led in St. John’s and the seizure of four kilograms of cocaine here and three more in Ontario in January.

Parsons has been charged with cocaine trafficking; Nolan has been charged with cocaine trafficking, possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and conspiring to traffic cocaine; and Tucker and Langdon have each been charged with 12 offences related to MDMA possession and trafficking, and the illegal possession of a pistol and a rifle. Two of their charges involve a coaccused in Vancouver who has not yet been arrested, the court heard.

Parsons, Nolan, Tucker and Langdon agreed to abide by conditions, including that they surrender their passports, remain in the province and have no contact with a list of specific people, and will return to court near the end of October.

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2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281599538643530

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