One man found guilty, another not guilty of trafficking cocaine in Yellowknife

Two men tried jointly following a major drug bust in Yellowknife were handed different verdicts on Friday.

Gary Gattie, 52, of Yellowknife, and Liban MohamoodMohammed, 28, of Calgary, were both on trial for possession of property obtained by crime and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Gattie was found not guilty on both counts, while Mohammed was found guilty.

Gattie and Mohammed were among seven people arrested after RCMPentered a downtown apartment on a search warrant in September 2017. During the raid, police seized four firearms, about 300 grams of crack cocaine and more than $52,000 in cash.

Since then, one man, Mamadou Gueye, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and for possessing a prohibited weapon. Another man, Farhan Hussein, pleaded guilty to possessing two grams of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Charges against the remaining three people were stayed.

Apartment was a 'stash house,' say police

At Gattie and Mohammed's trial, police testified that the apartment was being used as a "stash house" for a drug trafficking operation.

Gattie was the tenant of the apartment and Mohammed appeared to have been staying there.

In a Yellowknife courtroom on Friday, N.W.T. Supreme Court Justice Shannon Smallwood gave her reasons for the differing verdicts. She said the main question was whether the drugs and money belonged to the accused.

Smallwood said that in addition to drugs and cash in the apartment, police found two safes, baggies, digital scales, a phone with texts suggesting the sale of drugs, and "white residue" that hadn't been tested.

The heart of the operation appeared to be in a locked, upstairs bedroom. Evidence found there included a bag of cocaine on the bedside table, the phone with the suggestive texts, a bank deposit receipt and other documents, and two safes, the larger of which contained the money and drugs.

Gattie's fingerprints were found on the smaller safe, but Smallwood said it couldn't be determined when the prints were left there, and there was no evidence that Gattie knew what was inside the safes.

The upstairs bedroom

Gattie had said that he didn't have a key to the locked bedroom,nor did he have control over the safes or knowledge of their contents.

While Smallwood said she "strongly" suspects Gattie had knowledge of the drugs and cash, and that it was "very likely" Gattie was involved in the operation, she said the evidence "does not satisfy me beyond a reasonable doubt."

This was not the case, however, with Mohammed.

Though Mohammed had said there was nothingto connect him to what was inside the bedroom, and denied having access to it, Smallwood found otherwise.

She said a bank deposit receipt and other documents found by police in the upstairs bedroom connect Mohammed to the room.

Police also found a phone in the apartment's living room that contained texts to Mohammed's wife, and other evidence connecting Mohammed to documents in the upstairs bedroom.

Mohammed is set to be sentenced in Yellowknife on June 8.