U.S. court told of Winnipeggers' drug scheme

Billings, MONT. — Timothy Morneau recruited two willing young Winnipeg men with clean criminal records as part of a grand plan to smuggle into the U.S. millions of dollars worth of drugs bound for California.

If not for the suspicions of a single state trooper patrolling a lonely stretch of interstate highway on a freezing cold morning last February, the Winnipegger’s enterprise might have been a success.

So claims assistant district attorney James Seykora, who outlined the U.S. government’s case against the 33-year-old during his opening statement to jurors at the start of Morneau’s trial Monday afternoon.

Morneau is charged with possession with intent to distribute nearly 240,000 tablets of the drug ecstacy that he allegedly smuggled into the U.S. by using a rickety snowmobile stolen from a repair shop in Souris, Man.

The drug seizure is the fourth-largest ever in Montana, justice officials say.

Two other Winnipeg men, Alan Mulder and Christian Laurin, both 20, have pleaded guilty to similar charges. They recently reached an as-yet-undisclosed plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for testimony against Morneau. They are expected to take the stand today.

If convicted, Montana law dictates that Morneau must spend a minimum of 10 years in a federal prison and pay a $4-million fine. He’s considered innocent until proven guilty.

Past convictions show Montana is not the state in which to get caught for drug infractions.

Last January, Judge Richard Cebull, who is’s overseeing Morneau’s trial, sent a man convicted of trafficking methamphetamine to prison for 20 years, to be followed by 10 years of probation.

Seykora began the prosecution’s case by calling Trooper Glenn Quinnell to testify about what happened just after he pulled Morneau, Mulder and Laurin over on the I-94 highway for a headlight infraction at about 8 a.m. Feb. 9.

After bringing the driver of the car, Laurin, back to his cruiser and starting to question him, Quinnell testified that something seemed odd and some of the things the young bodybuilder was telling him "didn’t make a lot of sense."

Quinnell testified that Laurin gave conflicting statements about how he knew Morneau, who was sleeping in the passenger seat of the 2003 Volkswagen Golf belonging to Mulder’s parents.

At one point, Laurin told the officer Morneau is a friend of Mulder’s. In the next breath, Laurin described him as simply a hitchhiker, Quinnell said.

Seykora played in court a video of the traffic stop recorded on the patrol car’s dashboard camera. After talking further to one of the suspects in the car, Quinnell walked away from it, telling a fellow officer at the scene that "something ain’t right here."

Later, after more questions were asked of the three men, Quinnell called his police station, saying, "Dispatch…, we have a load here."

Mulder consented to having the vehicle searched back at the police station in Glendive. After opening one of three large duffel bags in the car’s trunk, Quinnell called to have a search warrant written up and the massive quantity of drugs was seized.

The judge heard that while Morneau claimed to not know the other two men and to have been picked up by them after missing his ride with another vehicle, text messages seized from Mulder’s cellphone show they had been in contact before the traffic stop.

Investigators also collected hotel, gas and other receipts from the car and Mulder’s wallet as part of the search. Police allege they show the plan to smuggle the drugs had been in place for days before the men were arrested.

Seykora told the seven-man, five-woman jury that the whole affair was a "drug-smuggling business trip."

Defence lawyer David Duke cautioned the jury in his opening remarks about coming to quick conclusions.

"Only at the very end do you get the chance to pull it together."

An RCMP officer from Boissevain was also called to testify Monday about hotel receipts he uncovered in Souris.

james.turner@freepress.mb.ca