Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 1, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba winnipegfreepress. com I T was the biggest drug bust in Manitoba history at that point, with a total of 69 people charged. The story made news across the continent and even hit the pages of Time magazine. But it wasn’t the size of the July 1970 bust that drew media attention, it was the manner in which the RCMP carried it out. An undercover Mountie posed as a singer in a Winnipeg rock band for 10 months, playing local pubs while making more than 200 buys of illegal drugs in order to identify and ultimately nab drug dealers. The circumstances of the case still rile many local musicians who were on the scene at the time. The ramifications were farreaching, and several lives were seriously impacted. “ The music community had been very close before the bust,” says one of the people caught up in the bust, who wants to be anonymous. “ After that, there was a lot of paranoia, and people didn’t trust one another. It was never the same.” In the fall of 1969, recent RCMP graduate Andy Arsenault, a native of Prince Edward Island, was recruited from the Flin Flon detachment to infiltrate the Winnipeg music scene in a sting operation. Arsenault, 24, fit the bill perfectly. He had sung in local rock bands in his home province and was young and good- looking. He found a note on a downtown Winnipeg music- store bulletin board from a band looking for a singer. After a false start with a younger band, Andy Taylor ( as he called himself) hooked up with what would become Prodigal Son, borrowing the name from a defunct Nova Scotia band Arsenault knew of. His bandmates were Ken Houghton, Gary McMillan, Dwain Ste. Marie and Tom Suffield. For the next 10 months, Prodigal Son worked the pub circuit playing places such as the Westminster, St. Charles and Assiniboine hotels. All the while, Taylor sought out contacts to supply him with drugs. He would make detailed notes of the names and the buys. He was paid $ 1 a day extra for danger pay. “ I was just a young officer who did what he was told,” says Arsenault, in his first interview since the bust nearly 45 years ago. Now retired from the RCMP after having risen to the rank of inspector in a 30- year career, he is circumspect about the much- publicized bust. “ When you’re young and just starting out in your career, you want to make a good impression on your superiors.” The singer cover was a perfect fit. “ I loved working with the band,” Arsenault says. “ They didn’t do any drugs.” Nonetheless, Arsenault used his cover to infiltrate the drug community, which was active in the pubs. “ The objective was to identify who the dealers were in the pubs. We were not after the musicians,” he says. “ If I had been told I was going after the musicians, I would have refused the assignment. That never entered the picture. But unfortunately, some people got caught in the middle for supplying drugs, and I regret that.” The plan worked well. No one had any inkling of subterfuge. “ He was kind of secretive, but I never suspected anything,” says later band member James Ross. “ He could sing like Tom Jones, and the girls loved him. I was totally surprised when the whole thing came down.” Arsenault’s cover was almost blown one night at the Assiniboine Hotel on west Portage Avenue. A classmate from P. E. I., then in the Canadian Armed Forces, spotted Arsenault onstage and shouted out, “ Jesus Christ, Andy, I thought you’d joined the RCMP!” Quickly telling the band he needed to take a break, Taylor grabbed the friend and hustled him out of the pub, telling him he was undercover and not to blow it for him. “ When I came back, I told the band members that the guy had made I mistake. I said that I looked like someone he went to school with. The next day I told my superiors, and they arranged for the guy to be transferred to Calgary.” In July 1970, Arsenault felt it was time to pull the plug. “ The band was getting quite popular,” he suggests, “ and there was talk of going on the road. I couldn’t do that, so I told my superiors to pull me out.” Bandmate Ross recalls a further inducement to ending the sting. “ Andy left his wallet at a party, and we looked at it and discovered he wasn’t who we thought he was,” he says. Nonetheless, the other members of Prodigal Son never anticipated what came next. Ste. Marie, the band’s drummer, was caught in the crossfire. “ That was the absolute worst of it all,” says Arsenault. “ We were friends, and that was very difficult to do.” Ste. Marie was not a drug user but offered to be a go- between for one of Arsenault’s drug requests. “ When they brought in all the guys who were busted and I had to identify them, I cried when Dwain came in. He cried, too,” says Arsenault. The band rehearsed at Ste. Marie’s house, and Arsenault was close to the family. “ I never spoke to him or the others again, although about a year later the bass player contacted me and said he didn’t hold anything against me and missed me,” he says. The brother of one of Arsenault’s lady friends was also busted in the sweep. “ It was rough having to turn on friends,” he says. “ That was the absolute worst of it. I regret that.” Arsenault was vilified in the media for the way the sting used a rock group to bust people, many of whom were not kingpin dealers but just helping someone score some grass. A local newspaper used a photo of Arsenault on a wanted poster with gunsights placed over his image. “ It was a total freak show afterwards,” he says. He feared for his life. “ Young people really turned against me. In court, I was kicked by people. I had to get out of town.” There were rumours a hit had been ordered on Arsenault. “ It got pretty scary for the band, too,” says Ross, who assumed much of the singing duties after the plug was pulled on the undercover operation. “ There were people looking to go after Andy and would come to see the band with that in mind.” A fundraising social was organized to help musicians who had been busted. “ Andy Taylor Fan Club” T- shirts were sold at the gig. “ The police were waiting outside because they thought it was raising money to pay for a hit on Taylor,” recalls one reveller. “ I was pulled over and given a hard time for wearing my Andy Taylor T- shirt.” Arsenault still has one of the T- shirts. A local pizza restaurant posted a photo of four well- known individuals in a newspaper ad stating that if any of them came into the restaurant, they would receive a free pizza. One of the photos was of the premier, while another was of Arsenault. “ Some of my RCMP buddies and I were out on the town one evening and they talked me into claiming the pizza, so I did,” says Arsenault. Some of the people who were busted served jail time, while others ended up in what is now called Stony Mountain Institution. One well- known River Heights dealer turned on many of the people he sold to in return for a reduced charge. If the goal was to catch the big fish, many smaller fish were caught up in the net. “ I wasn’t a big- time drug dealer,” states one victim. “ Taylor would approach people he’d just met and ask them to get him some weed or hash. It was entrapment. I was looking at serious prison time, but my family was able to hire one of the best lawyers in town, and it was reduced to four months’ jail time. Not everyone was that fortunate. “ The whole thing had a serious effect on my family and on me. I felt I had let my parents down. It screwed up my life, no doubt about it. I was portrayed as being a criminal, and you carry that label with you. I wouldn’t be able to get a regular job or travel to the States. I had wanted to study music in the States. I was freaked right out at the thought of going to jail. I had to get medical attention. It was like posttraumatic stress disorder. I spent many years afterwards looking over my shoulder.” “ He busted me for pot back then,” says another musician caught in the sting operation. “ Everyone was up in arms, but I don’t have any ill will toward him. It was a game, and I got caught.” The RCMP received considerable criticism for their methods. “ It was the only undercover case using a band that the force ever did,” says Arsenault. “ They took a lot of heat for allowing an officer to be embedded so deeply and for so long.” While going on to work in the RCMP drug squad, Arsenault avoided undercover work. “ I would not do that again,” he says. He later performed in the RCMP’s 100th anniversary touring show, which brought him back to Winnipeg. The troop included a side project, a rock band that performed at children’s hospitals in each city of the tour. He also appeared in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar at Confederation Centre in P. E. I. “ I don’t beat myself up about it,” Arsenault says, reflecting on the sting. “ I just did what I was told. I have no regrets for the drug dealers. My only regret is deceiving the band members and their families. They were great guys. Please tell Dwain I wish him well.” Sign up for John Einarson’s Friday evening Off the Record courses at mcnallyrobinson. com. THIS CITY . OUR WEEKLY LOOK AT THE PULSE OF THE CITY . A8 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 WAZNY & WELCH ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO TWEET @ WAZOOWAZNY tweeted: Why was he ducking & did you get him? Picturing a scene in the parking lot surrounded by big trucks and empty beverage containers. @ MAWWELCH tweeted: Going with a sports guy to see the Crane Cranes vs. the Alpine Bucks so I could buttonhole the local sheriff at halftime. @ MAWWELCH tweeted: I’ll take the balls at 12.1 psi. And Katy Perry’s secret special guest will be hologram frenemy Taylor Swift. @ MAWWELCH tweeted: Can’t recall what the story was. Maybe a spate of separatist militia? I sidled up to him in the stands. He was Texas- chatty. @ WAZOOWAZNY tweeted: Um, what?! I don’t know this story. Please give a Texas high school football memory in 129 character or less. @ WAZOOWAZNY tweeted: OK, Super Bowl prediction time: I like Seattle to win by a touchdown and the anthem singer ( Idina Menzel) to go over the 2: 01 mark. @ WAZOOWAZNY tweeted: No NYG, so the Super Bowl is a non- event for me. More interested in Katy Perry. I like gambling on the anthem time, too. You? @ MAWWELCH tweeted: ( FTR, I know who the NYG are.) I’m more interested in the NFL’s antidomestic violence ad. ’ Cos flashy ads fix sports culture. @ WAZOOWAZNY tweeted : Stylish advertising mixed with misogyny? Sounds like Mad Men . So, who ya got in the big game? Predictions! People are asking... @ MAWWELCH tweeted: Why does Twitter think I know zip about football? I took Friday night high school fuh’ball scores @ my first job in Odessa, TX! ‘ My only regret is deceiving the band members and their families. They were great guys’ Mountie with a microphone Drug bust by undercover cop rocked city’s music scene pe icot gs, ny er ke Arsenaul o ed serve Mo reduce w w dealer Tay s fami w ja th se an pa li lab JOHN EINARSON REMEMBERS PIGSKIN PREDICTIONS SUPER BOWL SIDESHOW AS BIG AS THE GAME ;