A man's appeal of his conviction for drug possession has been dismissed in court.
Andrew Messina was convicted of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking on June 6, 2012 but argued in court Nov. 15, 2013 that he was unlawfully arrested and the evidence obtained through a strip search should be inadmissible.
Messina was arrested in North Vancouver Sept. 24, 2010 when two plainclothes police officers witnessed Messina's involvement in what they believed to be a dial-a-dope operation. Messina met with four people at four different locations, each one getting into his car and exiting it in less than a minute. The officers, part of the North Vancouver RCMP Crime Reduction Unit, arrested Messina and took him back to the detachment where he was strip-searched. The officers found around half a gram of cocaine on him.
Messina argued that his rights had been violated under sections eight and nine of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that police had no reasonable grounds to arrest and search him.
The judge ruled that Messina's rights had not been breached and upheld his conviction.
