Person of interest in Calgary Amber Alert previously sentenced for drugs

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CALGARY (NEWS1130) – A man identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of a Calgary family has been in trouble with the law before and there’s a link to Vancouver.

Court records say 54-year-old Douglas Garland once served time in prison for making amphetamines at his parents’ farm in nearby Airdrie.

It’s the same property where officers have been searching since Saturday in the case of the missing family members.

Five-year-old Nathan O’Brien was having a sleepover at the home of Alvin and Kathy Liknes when they were last seen June 29th.

Garland has been named in local media reports as the man police have identified as a person of interest in the investigation.

A federal tax court ruling describes Garland as an intelligent but troubled man who went to medical school for a year before he had a mental breakdown.

The document says that after Garland skipped bail on drug charges in 1992, he assumed a dead teen’s identity and got a job with Vancouver laboratory company testing pesticides.

RCMP eventually tracked him down and, in 2000, he was sentenced to just over three years for drug trafficking.

When he got out of prison, Garland represented himself in a court case against the Canada Revenue Agency _ and won.

The government went after him for employment insurance benefits it gave him after he was fired from the laboratory job because he had been using a fake name and a fake social insurance number.

A judge ruled that Garland did his job well and deserved the payments.

Garland appeared in court today on a charge of identity theft stemming from the 1992 allegations. His case was adjourned until Wednesday.

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