| Ontario’s highest court has ruled in a case in which police found guns, drugs, cash and ammunition behind a fake wall in a barn leased to a member of the Hells Angels. Police, acting on a tip about the fake wall, obtained a warrant to conduct the search. But earlier in their investigation, police had picked a lock and broken into the same barn – without a warrant. In a 3-0 decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal quashed multiple convictions against Frank Strauss of Perth County, west of Kitchener, Ont., for which he had been sentenced to 11 years in jail. Experts called the police behaviour “pretty shocking misconduct, to deliberately and knowingly violate the Charter just because they felt it was in some general public interest.” |
 | The judge didn't have kind words for Frank Strauss in 2014 ... "I think you're a career criminal" whose primary occupation was "running a drug distribution network." He was convicted of 17 offences. The quantity and variety of drugs — including more than 8.5 kilograms of cocaine — was an aggravating factor. "He was operating a warehouse of illicit substances for sale." |  |
