RCMP Watch

Michelle Lalonde (Montreal Gazette) - A Quebec Court judge sentenced former Montreal police officer Pierre Goulet yesterday to 30 months in prison for the illegal transportation and possession of millions of dollars in drug money.

While he was an active police officer, Goulet made a series of trips to Miami, where he picked up millions of dollars and brought the money back across the border to Montreal, often flashing his police badge to border officials.

Goulet was drawn into the cocaine network by his childhood friend, Bernard Mondou, who used the money Goulet transported to purchase cocaine from a Colombian drug lord.

Goulet was paid an estimated $70,000 in commissions for his services.

He pleaded guilty last June to four counts of transporting the proceeds of crime and two counts of possession of proceeds of crime.

Each of these charges carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The defence had asked the judge for a suspended sentence, while the Crown sought a three-year prison term.

In her sentencing decision, Judge Sylvie Durand said the fact Goulet was a police officer at the time of the crimes was a key element.

“Although the accused expressed shame and regret, his testimony mostly consisted of justifying his actions and minimizing his involvement and the payment received,” Durand wrote.

She said Goulet’s explanations for his actions - that he was having marital problems, wanted to help his childhood friend Mondou and that he was fascinated with organized crime - were not particularly compelling.

“The accused has taken no steps, in therapy or otherwise, to understand what brought him to get involved in organized crime.

“His own explanations are not elucidating. He does not have a gambling problem or a drug problem. He was not in debt.

“The deeper reasons which pushed him to lead what we could call a double life are still unknown,” she wrote.

Goulet carried money for the cocaine trafficking network in a series of trips between Feb. 1, 2000 and Jan. 31, 2002.

In 2004, Mondou and the Colombian drug lord, Elias Cobos-Munoz, were arrested in Operation Manatee, a major U.S. cocaine smuggling investigation.

Mondou’s partner in crime, Daniel Muir, was killed in downtown Montreal in February, 2004.

During that homicide investigation by Montreal police, an investigator realized Goulet was involved with Muir and Mondou.

The Goulet investigation was then turned over to the RCMP, and that force had an agent smoke out the crooked cop by pretending to be a member of the Colombian cartel.

Goulet was an acting Montreal police officer from 1989 until his arrest in 2006. He resigned in June 2007, on the day he pleaded guilty.

Since Goulet was detained pending trial for six weeks, the judge reduced his sentence by three months to 27 months.