Carl T. Bursey once a high-ranking member of the Bandidos biker gang, was sentenced to 10 years
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Carl T. Bursey, 33, once a high-ranking member of the Bandidos biker gang, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for being involved in three different conspiracies at the same time, all focused on obtaining cocaine and marijuana to feed the illegal drug trade in Kingston.One of his associates, Nickolaos Psihogios, 36, was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, with credit for 255 days of pretrial custody, after pleading guilty to a single count of drug conspiracy during the same time frame, December 2006, through May 2007.Federal drug prosecutor Rod Sonley told Justice Rommel Masse that Psihogios was involved in supplying drugs in Brockville, but he's actually from Montreal. Masse acceded to Psihogios' lawyer's request for a recommendation that Psihogios be allowed to serve his sentence in Quebec.Sonley asked for a significantly longer sentence for Bursey, however, telling the judge there are indicationshe was setting up distribution lines in the fall of 2006,while still in prison."In all my years of doing this," Sonley told the judge, "I have never seen someone so actively involved."Masse was told that Bursey was impatient with his suppliers and was constantly trying to obtain more cocaine and new supply sources."That's purely what this was about ... money," Sonley told the judge, "trying to move as much product as you can, as fast as you can."Bursey and Psihogios were among 14 people arrested in February, following a two-year investigation by Kingston Police and the local RCMP detachment into networks supplying Kingston with cocaine.Tagged 'Operation Touch Up' Sonley said the initial interest was in Bursey and a local businessman with no prior record, 44-year-old Rogar McIlroy, who ran Lend A Hand Auto.Unlike Project Dante, a preceding investigation into Hell's Angels links with Kingston's street drug trade, police believed the people Operation Touch Up had under scrutiny were independents who, not being tied to any particular organized crime group, were shopping around for the best prices on drugs.As the investigation unfolded, Masse learned, local police logged more than 45,000 wire-tapped phone conversations between key players in the conspiracy, which pointed them to other participants and eventually arrests in Gananoque, Brockville, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, as well as Kingston. The phone conversations also resulted in charges being laid against a civilian dispatcher with Kingston Police.Shirley A. McMahon is accused of using using her position to access sensitive information about the investigation and pass it on to suspects. She was suspended in 2007 before any arrests were made and is currently before the court, charged with obstructing justice and unauthorized use of a computer.McIlroy was caught on tape bragging that he'd been in the drug business for 23 years without getting caught and giving advice on dealing without detection.
In July, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including drug trafficking, and was sentenced to six years in jail.When police swept up the drug ring in February they seized 2.7 kilograms of cocaine, almost a pound of marijuana, 645 grams of hashish, 31 grams of magic mushroom and 55 grams of steroids, together with various items of stolen property.In sentencing Psihogios, Masse said, "Cocaine is a devastating drug," he told the Montrealer. "It's absolutely devastating to society and you've got children yourself."
