Matriarch drug dealer pleads guilty

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This article was published 21/10/2023 (689 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg woman set to stand trial Monday for her role in a decades-old drug ring pleaded guilty Friday to a single count of conspiring to traffic in cocaine.

Amanda Rouse, 55, was among 14 people arrested in April 2021 following a lengthy police investigation dubbed Project Matriarch targeting reputed ringleader Sandra Guiboche.

Guiboche, 59, pleaded guilty to the same charge last month and is free on bail awaiting sentencing.

Police seized more than $2.3 million in property and drugs as part of their investigation, with criminal forfeitures filed for 10 residential properties in Point Douglas and nine bank accounts owned by Guiboche.

In a 2021 sworn affidavit, provincial property forfeiture officials allege Guiboche has been selling drugs in Point Douglas for 25 years and is known for selling pink-coloured crack cocaine — a sort of branding for her product.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Rouse was co-owner of five of the properties, some of which were rented out to members of the drug ring and used to stash cocaine. Rouse stashed drugs at her own Talbot Avenue home in return for cash and drugs.

The agreed statement of facts describes an operation of business-like efficiency, with Guiboche at the top and assorted family members and others in the middle processing and distributing the drugs to street-level dealers.

Between October 2020 and March 2021, Guiboche sourced at least 10 kilograms of cocaine from three suppliers, which was stored at one of her properties until it could be cooked into crack and packaged for sale. Mid-level “dishers” then distributed the drugs to street-level dealers.

“Guiboche would be in constant communication with the individuals dishing to ensure the operation was running smoothly and the shift list she organized was being followed,” says the agreed statement of facts.

Guiboche rented rooms out to people working at all levels of the drug operation and would schedule workers based on who owed her money or rent.

Wiretap communications show Rouse had full knowledge of and participated in the drug operation. Multiple communications show Rouse and Guiboche discussing how to launder the drug proceeds, including through casinos.

In a Jan. 25, 2021 conversation, Guiboche tells Rouse to make a series of bank deposits, but to keep them under $4,000, “otherwise it will be on the radar.”

In a Feb. 7, 2021 conversation, Rouse tells Guiboche to watch what she buys with cash, because it “flags things.” Guiboche tells her she used a line of credit to buy a new house, but was only putting a “couple of thousand” a month on the mortgage “so it is not suspicious.”

Guiboche and Rouse were one-time partners in a now-defunct home renovation business, S and M Reno and Rays. At a 2014 sentencing for drug possession, Guiboche’s lawyer described her as a “struggling businesswoman.”

At the time of Guiboche’s and Rouse’s most recent arrest, police executed a search warrant at the business’s Main Street storefront and seized $60,000 in bundled cash.

Searches of Guiboche’s and Rouse’s Talbot Avenue homes yielded $124,000 in cash and $51,000 in cash, respectively.

Rouse remains free on bail and will be sentenced at a later date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca