Nanaimo judge finds man not guilty of cocaine importation, trafficking

More than 11 kilograms of cocaine was seized by investigators in November 2019. (RCMP)

A man who was charged with importing and trafficking more than 11 kilograms of cocaine has walked free from a Nanaimo, B.C., courtroom.

Gerry David Allan Grieve was found not guilty of three charges – importing, possessing and trafficking cocaine – stemming from his arrest in November 2019 alongside co-accused Gerhard Gunther Laufer.

During the trial, the Crown called 22 witnesses and experts, including 16 current and former police officers, to argue that Grieve, a commercial trucker, used hollow battery casings to transport cocaine across the U.S. border into Canada.

The Crown alleged Grieve then trafficked the cocaine to Laufer, who brought it back to Vancouver Island, as part of an organized crime ring.

Grieve had been a target of the RCMP's Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit for nearly nine months when he and Laufer were arrested after a brief meeting in a storage garage in Surrey, B.C., on Nov. 7, 2019.

Police found six cellphones on the men following the takedown. A search of Laufer's truck revealed a hidden compartment containing 10 bricks of cocaine weighing approximately 11.3 kilograms in total, according to the June 29 judgment. 

A search of Grieve's pickup truck after the arrest turned up two hollow commercial truck battery casings, which prosecutors argued were used to hide the cocaine before it was trafficked to Laufer.

Provincial court judge Brian Harvey found the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonal doubt that Grieve was ever in possession of the cocaine.

Laufer was sentenced last year to three years in prison for possession for the purpose of trafficking.