Manitoba Finance official gets house arrest for tipping off informant

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This article was published 13/01/2025 (271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Donovan Sired thought he was protecting a valuable informant when he told him to steer clear of the RCMP’s highway stings as part of a cross-country drug and cigarette trafficking investigation.

The former investigator with Manitoba Finance’s special investigations unit will pay the price for that decision, pleading guilty Monday to breach of trust for tipping off an informant during a massive RCMP investigation to crack down on illegal tobacco and narcotics between May 2022 and January 2023.

The probe, dubbed Project Dawgpound, sought to monitor the activities of Hue Ha, the leader of a network that transported large amounts of drugs and tobacco in and out of Manitoba.

Sired, 51, admitted to giving information to Wayne Lavallee that would help Ha’s network stay out of the RCMP’s reach.

“Mr. Sired was likely in a misguided effort to protect his informant,” defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg told Court of King’s Bench Justice Brian Bowman at the sentencing hearing. “Once you have somebody who provides you with reliable information, you want to hold on to that person.”

Court heard RCMP tapped Ha’s phone as part of the investigation and heard a “tax guy” was giving the suspects information about projects and investigations, as well as where RCMP’s traffic division was setting up traps to stop vehicles.

“Through those interceptions, it was revealed Lavallee, and in turn, Ha and others, were receiving confidential, operational information,” Crown attorney Erin Magas told court.

On Nov. 28, 2022, Lavallee was driving back to Manitoba from Ontario with 71 cases of unmarked cigarettes when Sired directed him not to re-enter the province. Court heard an RCMP investigator contacted Sired about a tip he received regarding a man named “Wayne” who was driving back to Manitoba with a trailer full of illegal tobacco.

Sired flagged the tip to Lavallee and told the officer they might be looking for someone named “Wayne Chief.”

“Mr. Sired likely gave him misinformation in an attempt to protect that informant, an attempt to ensure that he can continue to use that informant. That is a direct violation,” Magas said.

Lavallee, along with Ha and 19 others, were arrested in March 2023 as part of Project Dawgpound, which resulted in the seizure of millions of dollars in drugs, firearms, vehicles and illegal cigarettes.

The contraband cigarettes would have yielded Manitoba $1.47 million in tax revenue.

Ha pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to traffic drugs and weapons trafficking. He was sentenced to 11 years behind bars in December 2023.

Lavallee became an informant for the provincial department in March 2021 after being caught with illegal tobacco.

Roitenberg said over the course of nearly two years, Lavallee had provided information that resulted in the seizure of millions of dollars worth of illegal products.

Lavallee died of a heart attack on Aug. 4, 2024.

Crown and defence lawyers agreed on a sentence of two years house arrest for Sired.

Roitenberg argued there should have been more oversight in his client’s dealings with Lavallee.

“Confidential informants are a dangerous aspect of policing. It requires some measure of skill and tact and training and experience,” Roitenberg said. “When somebody is new to the task, it … requires some form of supervision.”

Sired was also originally charged with bribery of officers and conspiracy to evade payment, but the Crown stayed those charges owing to a lack of evidence.

Magas said while there was no direct evidence Lavallee or his network paid the provincial employee for the information, text exchanges and phone recordings suggested Sired was receiving cash for his intel.

Sired listened intently from the gallery during the hearing, occasionally nodding to the lawyers’ submissions and Bowman’s comments. He did not submit any comments during his sentencing.

Bowman acknowledged the loss of employment with the province and tarred reputation was a punishment in itself, and advised Sired use his time under house arrest to reflect.

“I hope you’re able to look back at this and not only, of course, adhere strictly to the conditional sentence order, but also look for ways in which you can positively contribute to the community going forward,” he told Sired.

Court heard Manitoba Finance was forced to abandon charges and investigations into more than 10 operations due to Sired’s involvement in the investigations.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca