Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Ex-Bomber asks judge to drop drug charges
Argues lengthy trial wait violates his rights
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Eddie Blake now lives in Nashville, Tenn.
A former Winnipeg Blue Bomber and local nightclub owner wants drug conspiracy charges from 2004 dismissed because the case has taken too long to go to trial.
Eddie "Earthquake" Blake was in a Winnipeg courtroom Friday to argue the unreasonable delay means he should not be prosecuted. A trial date for Blake is set for Jan. 10, 2011. Blake is represented by Toronto lawyer Nyron Dwyer.
"We're saying it's just too far off in the future," Dwyer said outside court. "It's just too long. It breaches his charter rights."
Blake, 41, has maintained he's innocent in connection with a scheme that allegedly saw huge amounts of ephedrine -- used to make the crystal methamphetamine -- smuggled into the United States from Canada.
Court of Queen's Bench Judge Chris Martin reserved his decision on Blake's motion.
Blake now lives in Nashville, Tenn. He said he works in construction and security.
Blake was one of 17 people arrested in September 2004 after a series of police raids in Winnipeg that targeted a network, which allegedly purchased large amounts of ephedrine from a Thunder Bay company and repackaged it in order to sell on the black market. Blake was charged with two counts of conspiracy to produce methamphetamine.
RCMP and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency alleged the ring was one of the major distribution networks in Canada, if not all of North America, that supplied ephedrine to drug labs in California connected to the Mexican Mafia.
At the time of his arrest, Blake had stakes in four Winnipeg businesses: a recording studio, hip-hop radio station Flava 107.9 FM and a security company. He also promoted boxing events.
He also used to run the now-closed Phat Daddy's nightclub on McDermot Avenue and is a former offensive lineman for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
On Wednesday, a 63-year-old American was sentenced for his role in the same ephedrine smuggling ring. A judge in Buffalo, N.Y., sentenced Hugh Stevens -- a former harness racer who used horse trailers to move ephedrine shipments into the U.S. from Canada -- to 20 years in prison.
Stevens of Derby, N.Y., was arrested in 2004 by DEA agents and accused of being the U.S. transportation co-ordinator. His wife received a five-year prison sentence on similar charges.
Last month in Winnipeg, businessman David Sokalski, 39, was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit nearly $4 million in cash and property that were deemed the proceeds of crime in connection to the same smuggling ring.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 20, 2010 A8
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