A Lynn Valley woman has been sentenced to a year in jail after a conviction for acting as a cross-country drug courier.
Andrea Molnar was pulled off a Via Rail train in Winnipeg and arrested in the early morning of May 14, 2014. She had boarded the train in Agassiz and was bound for Washago, in Ontario’s Lake Country, with a one-way ticket purchased with cash.
Molnar, 50, had been on the radar of police in Manitoba since the month prior when investigators received a tip from a confidential informant that Molnar would be travelling through Winnipeg on a train bound for Washago with a locked, grey suitcase that smelled of marijuana, according to a written ruling from the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba. By the time officers received the message, however, the train was already close to arriving in Washago and was too late to intercept.
The investigating officer kept in contact with Via Rail and learned Molnar was making the trip again on May 13. When the train arrived at Winnipeg, he called in an officer with a drug-sniffing dog and found the suitcase with 20 half-pound, vacuum-packed bags of pot concealed in a black garbage bag with coffee grounds, court documents show.
Representing herself at trial, Molnar first argued that the seizure of the suitcase was a violation of her charter rights and that the charges should be tossed out, the ruling noted. When that failed, she attempted to argue the suitcase did not belong to her, despite being found in possession of the matching baggage claim ticket stub and the key to the suitcase’s lock.
“She is, therefore, hard pressed now to assert, as she did, that she never admitted the grey suitcase belonged to her,” Justice Deborah McCawley wrote in her Feb. 6 ruling. “It is also difficult to reconcile this theory, apart from the lack of supporting evidence, with the evidence of the earlier tip from a confidential informant that linked her name to a grey suitcase smelling of marijuana, and the fact that the corresponding baggage tag and key were found in her possession after her detention and arrest.”
Molnar also floated the theory in court that the drugs were placed in the suitcase without her knowledge and that they were for legal medicinal use, the documents show. It would take a heavy marijuana user four years to consume that much pot, one RCMP drug expert testified at trial.
McCawley was unswayed by Molnar’s attempts to pick apart the Crown’s case and convicted Molnar of possession of marijuana for the purposes of trafficking. She was sentenced on April 24.
Crown had argued for an 18-month sentence given the seriousness of the offence, the level of planning and concealment, and the fact that Molnar had not taken responsibility, denying throughout the trial that she had any involvement.
An RCMP officer with an expertise in drug investigations testified the street value of the drugs was between $20,000 and $30,000. Molnar’s defence at sentencing had requested she be spared jail time or, failing that, a period of less than three months.
Molnar is being credited for one month already served on her 12-month sentence. Unless she applies for and receives a transfer, Molnar will serve the term in a Manitoba jail.
