Canada - Drug charges put Ottawan Pete Sagos in Bermuda prison… [2010-07-26 Ottawa Citizen]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Drug+charges+Ottawan+Bermuda+prison/3322413/story.html

Drug charges put Ottawan in Bermuda prison

Ex-Hillcrest student faces August trial

BY LEE GREENBERG
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

JULY 26, 2010 12:00 AM

An Ottawa man who has quietly been imprisoned in Bermuda since October will soon go to trial to answer allegations that he planned to import a massive quantity of cannabis to the island nation.

Peter Sagos, a former student at Hillcrest High School, was arrested and charged in October with conspiracy to import a reported $30 million of marijuana.

He also reportedly faces a charge of money laundering. The trial is set to begin Aug. 26 in Bermuda's Supreme Court.

The case is tied to the seizure of a yacht roughly 23 kilometres off the coast of Bermuda.

Sagos's friends, several of whom were unwilling to be identified, say news of his arrest spread through their community like wildfire.

However, many of them are still unclear of the details of the allegations -- and what the 34-year-old was doing in Bermuda.

What is known is Sagos was arrested Oct. 6 by a joint team of Bermuda customs and police officials.

Four days earlier, those same armed officials had seized a 36-foot Beneteau sailboat captained by Andrew "Steve" Blatchley and jailed its three occupants. Sagos was not on board the boat at that time, but is allegedly linked to the boat's movements.

Blatchley had been hired by another Canadian man, 69-year-old Egide Plourde, for a 35-day charter that began in Jamaica and made stops in Cuba and Bermuda.

His arrest "was in connection with an investigation where it was believed that a significant quantity of cannabis had recently been imported into the island on a yacht," said Bermuda police spokesman Robin Simmons. The British territory in the Caribbean is acutely conscious of being used as a transshipment spot for drugs and punishes drug crimes harshly.

Sandi Blatchley, the wife of the sailboat captain arrested along with Sagos, is trying to attract attention to her husband's case. She believes he is the victim of a set-up.

"None of us knew Peter Sagos," says Blatchley. "He never came into the picture until my husband was at Westgate (prison, in Bermuda). Now, they've been talking quite a bit because they're both in the same place. But to be honest with you, we have never met that man before in our lives."

Sandi Blatchley says her husband, a retired auto technician and a British national, had docked the boat, the Bomba Shack, in Jamaica when he was introduced to Plourde last summer. Plourde, 69 at the time, was interested in chartering a boat to experience life at sea. He expressed interest in buying a boat for himself.

Blatchley, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina, agreed to captain the charter for 35 days at a cost of $25,000, his wife says. They were joined by Jeannie Harden, who cooked and cleaned and took the occasional spell at the helm while the two men slept.

The Bomba Shack (it's named for a famous surfer bar in the British Virgin Islands) sailed to Cuba, then Bermuda.

The boat remained docked in a Bermuda yacht club for an unknown period while the crew performed repairs and while Plourde waited for money to pay for the charter.

Blatchley says police are alleging they have video of Sagos visiting the boat. "Well you know what? A lot of people come down to the boat, just to look at the new vessel in town. It was a pretty boat."

The group set sail toward Jamaica on Oct. 2, four weeks into the charter. Within hours, they were boarded by armed, masked Bermuda officials and forced back to the island. Blatchley says the ship was in international waters and calls the act "piracy and armed assault."

Sandi Blatchley says police found no drugs on board, but did seize $20,000 in U.S. cash -- the bulk of Plourde's charter fee, she says.

They are now relying on a "coerced and threatened statement" by her husband, she says.

Plourde and Harden were cleared of charges and released from prison in December. Plourde, who was reportedly suffering from cancer, died several days later in his native Quebec.

Sagos, meanwhile, remains in prison with Blatchley. The two men have become quite close in the past nine months, according to Sandi Blatchley

"Peter Sagos is doing very well," she says. "His family takes care of him very well as far as money. The only thing he was upset with was that on Father's Day he had put in for a call to his father and one of the guards neglected to put him on the list, so he could not call his father."

The Blatchleys each have two children from previous marriages, and nine grandchildren. Sandi Blatchley says there's no connection between her husband and Sagos.

"I know they're trying to link the two together, but the two cases are not related at all," she says. "My husband is clean is a whistle. He will take a polygraph to the fact they never knew Peter Sagos until they wound up being in court together."

Sagos's family has hired prominent Ottawa defence lawyer Michael Edelson to assist Bermuda attorney Liz Christopher with the case.

"I can't tell you anything about the case right now," Edelson said when reached at his Ottawa office last week.

Friends and acquaintances were also reluctant to talk about Sagos, a high-school rugby player who was known as a partier. "It's a sensitive situation, bro," said one downtown bar owner. "The trial's coming up."

(Sagos was involved, if only peripherally, in another high-profile Ottawa legal case. In 1999, he got into an altercation at a New Year's party after a man wiped his hands on Sagos's suede jacket. After the fight was broken up, the man, Ray Sauvé, got into a car piloted by a drunk driver that ultimately crashed into an oncoming car. The crash killed one teenaged boy and left 18-year-old Zoe Childs a paraplegic. Childs subsequently sued the party hosts in a case that went to the Supreme Court.)

Bermuda authorities, meanwhile, will release virtually no details on the case.

In a series of attempts by the Citizen to obtain information, justice officials refused to release even the most basic information. A spokeswoman referred the Citizen to the same online news reports that have spread widely among Sagos's Ottawa acquaintances.

"This is the department of public prosecutions office, but as you can understand information is just not given out readily," said Kendrea Place, litigation manager in the department. "Usually what the people do is attend court to see what the outcome is."

The one-time prosecutor on the case, Cindy Clarke, ignored several calls to her office.

Police spokesman Simmons would only confirm Sagos's arrest on the two charges.

"As this matter is before the courts, no further details will be released at this time," he wrote in an e-mail.

A Canadian government spokeswoman said the Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of the case, but is prevented from going into detail because of privacy laws.

"We're providing consular assistance as required," said Dana Cryderman.

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lgreenberg@thecitizen.canwest.com

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