A judge excluded the drug evidence after finding the RCMP had violated the accused's rights during the search of his vehicle.

A man has been acquitted after the police seizure of 27,500 fentanyl pills in a van was thrown out of court due a violation of the accused’s Charter rights.

Sandor Rigo was driving the van from Vancouver to Calgary when he was pulled over for speeding on Highway 1 near Chilliwack on April 4, 2017.

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When an RCMP officer approached the accused’s vehicle, he noted a strong odour of either cologne or air freshener, which he believed was often used by drug traffickers and couriers to mask the odour of narcotics.

He observed several cellphones between the driver and the passenger seats, indicating a “red flag” for drug activity.

The officer noted that Rigo’s right hand and arm were shaking violently, which Rigo attributed to being low on sugar and needing to eat something.

When the officer ran Rigo’s name through a police database, it showed he had a criminal record but nothing to indicate prior drug trafficking.

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Rigo was detained and a police drug detection dog was used to determined whether there were any narcotics in the vehicle.

The dog, PSD Doods, partially sat down during a walk around the vehicle, which the officer took as evidence there were drugs in the van.

Although a search of the van revealed no drugs, the officer had the vehicle towed to a local tire shop where a further search was conducted.

An initial search found no drugs, but as the mechanic was putting the last tire back, the officer noted a bottle of Bondo glue in a rear right console and decided to search the vehicle again.

The officer opened the top of the interior housing over the right rear wheel well and inside found a large Ziploc bag containing pills. Reaching in, he found four more bags.

Each of the large bags weighed the same, about 17.5 pounds, and inside each of the five large bags were five smaller bags. There were a total of 27,500 pills, which analysis later determined was fentanyl.

Rigo was charged with possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, but in a pre-trial ruling, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Brundrett found that his Charter rights had been violated during the police investigation.

The judge found that the police were too quick to rely on the detection dog’s “ambiguous behaviour” as supplementing the grounds to arrest the accused and to search the vehicle.

The police conduct was serious in that it involved the illegal arrest of the accused, the removal of the accused and his vehicle from the highway, and the illegal search of vehicle, he said.

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“This was not a situation where the police merely opened the hood or the rear of the vehicle to take a quick peek inside. It was not a minor or technical breach. Rather, the breach was more blatant. The impact of state intrusion was thus relatively high.”

The judge noted that the offence itself was serious because of the evils well-known to be associated with fentanyl trafficking and agreed that the public had a significant interest in finding out the truth of the case.

But he focused on the long-term effect that non-compliance would have on the overall reputation of the justice system. And he concluded that the admission of the drugs into evidence would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.