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Subject: Police stunned after charges
Police stunned after charges
Crime ring put ammunition, guns on street, chief says
Don Campbell, Gary Dimmock and Jennifer Morrison, with files from Kevin Ritchie
The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa firefighter Peter Lamar has been charged with 27 Criminal Code offences, including trafficking in firearms.
Ottawa police Const. Sonny Wong has been charged with 10 Criminal Code offences, including obstructing a police officer and theft.
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In a blow to the city's most trusted institutions, a veteran Ottawa police officer, a senior Mountie and a heroic firefighter have been charged with running a network that put stolen handguns, high-powered rifles and police-issued ammunition on the street.
The officers and firefighter are among 10 men charged with 121 criminal offences ranging from gun trafficking to theft.
The Citizen has learned that the illegal weapons network is linked to Ottawa's drug trade.
Detectives seized 33 firearms, knives, batons, pepper spray, Nunchaku sticks, police duty belts, speed loaders, body armour, gas masks and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, which included a "substantial" amount of police-issued ammunition.
"When we learned of this, it meant there were illegal weapons on the street and we are satisfied they are now off the street," said Chief Vince Bevan.
"Members are shocked by the charges that have come from this," Chief Bevan said.
Detectives launched the exhaustive probe after a member of the public complained that one of their own was putting illegal guns on the street.
Ottawa police Const. Sonny Wong, 34, is charged with 10 offences ranging from trafficking stolen guns and ammunition to theft, breach of trust and obstructing a fellow officer.
Const. Wong, who is suspended with pay, was hired 13 years ago as a minority recruit. The son of an Ottawa businessman, Const. Wong was held up as a shining example of the force's community policing program.
Const. Wong, well-known in Ottawa's Chinatown, used to lecture in high schools against drugs and crime. He also encouraged students to take up a career in policing.
The constable already faces seven internal charges under the Police Services Act in connection with a 2002 probe into ammunition that disappeared from the police station.
The constable's longtime friend, Ottawa firefighter Peter Lamar, 35, is charged with 27 criminal offences including gun trafficking, possession of property obtained by crime and obstruction of a peace officer.
Mr. Lamar was praised last summer when he risked his life to save a 15-year-old boy from a sewer.
The firefighter was lowered into the east-end sewer, then he travelled in a water-rescue dingy for 600 metres to rescue the boy, who had been trapped in the waist-deep morass for five hours.
A front page Citizen headline the next day read: "Thank you, thank you for saving me."
Mr. Lamar, who is posted to the Preston Street firehall, will be removed from active duty and take desk duty beginning today, a city spokesman said last night.
The son of a Canadian navy diver, Mr. Lamar and his wife recently left their country home to live on the same street with his widowed mother.
"That's the kind of wonderful son he has been to me. Both him and Sonny are good guys. We stopped talking about (the investigation) a while ago and we started to think everything's OK, but now everything is not OK," said Joan Lamar, the firefighter's mother.
"It's all a terrible shock," she said.
News of the charges last night left some fellow firefighters "stunned."
RCMP Const. Charles Soucy, a 39-year-old officer who is based in Ottawa, is charged with 13 offences, including trafficking of ammunition, theft and possession of a restricted firearm.
Const. Charles Soucy has been suspended with pay since Nov. 7, 2002.
A 16-year RCMP veteran officer, Const. Soucy worked with the centralized RCMP training branch, where he was responsible for maintaining and updating officer training.
Also charged in the guns-and-ammunition network is Brian McGillivray, 33, of Ottawa. Mr. McGillivray faces 41 charges, including fraud, possession of property obtained by crime, possession of a loaded firearm and careless storage of firearms and ammunition.
Six other area men are all facing charges relating to fraud allegations.
The value of the fraudulent acts is estimated to exceed $150,000, including some $17,000 allegedly defrauded from financial institutions.
"A lot of the information will likely come out at trial," said Chief Bevan, who said the Ottawa officer, if convicted, could face prison time and an automatic dismissal under the Police Services Act.
Const. Wong appeared briefly at Ottawa police headquarters on Elgin Street yesterday morning and was released on a promise to appear at a later date.
Fellow officers described Const. Wong as one of the last they would expect to bring disrepute to the department. They said policing was his life.
Also charged in the illegal gun network are Maurice Cléroux, 32, of Hammond; Lee Roy Duncan, 51, of Renfrew; Francesco Nocita, 42, of Ottawa; Domenic Bassi, 39, of Ottawa; and John Pirie, 36, of Galetta.
Lawrence Wark, 35, of Arnprior, is charged with 12 counts of fraud.
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