A Victoria provincial court judge has ruled that a statement made by a Lake Cowichan man arrested after throwing a suitcase stuffed with $2.6 million US into the ocean is admissible at trial.
Jeffrey Melchior is charged with money laundering and possession of property obtained by crime. The 46-year-old was arrested on his boat just after midnight on March 25, 2011, near the Canada-U.S. border.
Melchior’s trial began in March with evidence on three voir dires — trials within a trial.
In a 24-page decision, Judge Ernie Quantz found that Melchior was lawfully detained and questioned, that his rights were not breached when his BlackBerry was searched without a warrant and that the messages obtained from the device are admissible.
The trial is set to resume May 2.
During the voir dires, court heard that the RCMP border integrity monitoring centre spotted Melchior’s small boat travelling with no lights at high speed toward the U.S. border just before midnight on March 24, 2011.
The boat was just south of Saltspring Island, close to the shore in an area known for marine smuggling.
An RCMP patrol boat alerted by the centre almost collided with Melchior’s vessel as it tried to intercept it. Melchior’s boat crossed about 200 yards in front of the RCMP boat, about six minutes from the border, Quantz found.
The RCMP pursued Melchior, who suddenly shut his engine off. The RCMP boat passed him. As it doubled back, one of four officers on board saw Melchior drop an object the size of a cooler overboard. Two officers spotted a suitcase in the water and lifted it into their boat. In the case, which weighed 200 pounds, they found U.S. cash in vacuum-sealed packages.
An officer boarded Melchior’s boat and advised him that he was being detained under the Customs Act and the Canada Shipping Act.
Melchior was asked for his identification, but did not have any. Then officers did a pat-down search and found his BlackBerry in the front pocket of his jacket.
When the money was recovered, Melchior was arrested and handcuffed, transferred to the police boat and told his charter rights, Quantz said.
One of the officers testified that Melchior’s vessel was stopped under the shipping act because it was being operated in a hazardous manner, without navigation lights, near the border.
