A New Brunswick man arrested at a marijuana grow operation in Coquitlam avoided conviction on several gun charges but was found guilty of trafficking and production of a controlled substance in Port Coquitlam provincial court last month.
Daniel Carl Ferris was arrested in April 2009 at a home on Claremont Street that police said contained close to 1,700 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $473,200. Coquitlam RCMP also found a loaded Mossberg shotgun hidden between the mattress and the headboard of a bed and a Smith and Wesson handgun buried nearby under some clothing.
Judge Bryce Dyer rejected the defence's argument that Ferris was simply visiting the home when police conducted their raid. He wrote in his reasons for judgement that it was inconceivable the owners of the grow op, who spent time and resources installing a sophisticated security system to protect the crop, would simply allow random people to visit the property.
"While it is sometimes said that members of the criminal element are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, in this case, such adage would in my opinion be wrongly applied," the judge wrote. "Everything about this grow operation points to it being set up by a real professional or group of the same, someone or some group of persons who knew what they were doing."
Dyer added that it was not surprising the hydro and phone bills addressed to the home did not list Ferris as an occupant given the illegal activity taking place on the premises.
"I would have been surprised if such evidence was located at the grow operation," he said.
But the judge said the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the weapons found in the home belonged to Ferris. Unlike the marijuana, the guns were not in plain view, the judge wrote, and there was no evidence presented by the prosecution that would indicate that Ferris was the only person with access to the home.
Therefore, he said, the charges of possession of the shotgun and hand gun without a licence, possession of a loaded prohibited firearm and careless storage of the handgun and shotgun were all dismissed.
The court case caps a long cross-country legal journey for Ferris. After he was arrested in 2009, Coquitlam RCMP learned he was wanted in New Brunswick for aggravated assault resulting from a stabbing outside a Moncton night club.
The 2007 incident left one man paralyzed after a knife blade severed his spine.
Ferris was sent back to his home province to stand trial but was found not guilty. He was re-arrested immediately after his acquittal and sent back to British Columbia to face the drug and weapons charges in the Tri-Cities.
