Ex-Montreal cop who ran pot-smuggling ring granted parole

Daniel Lapierre, 63, a member of the Montreal Urban Community police for about a decade, was dinged twice financially for the marijuana trafficking network operating in Quebec, New Brunswick and the U.S. between 2003 and 2005.


As part of a plea bargain agreed to in a federal court in Maine in 2007, Lapierre did not challenge the forfeiture of $4 million U.S. that authorities seized during an investigation that produced the arrests of 26 others.

Work by undercover agents in the U.S. helped the Drug Enforcement Administration unravel the ring. The RCMP assisted on the Canadian side.

Lapierre pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import more than 100 kilograms of marijuana into the U.S. and money laundering.

After serving nearly half his 12-year sentence in the U.S., Lapierre was returned to Canada on April 7 and placed in a Canadian penitentiary near Montreal. A month later, he was charged with transporting the proceeds of crime ? the cash made from his marijuana deals ? into Canada.