Case against Chilliwack man caught with nearly 30k fentanyl pills thrown out
Posted January 24, 2019 8:22 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A Chilliwack man caught with nearly 30,000 fetanyl pills in the spring of 2017 has had all charges against him dismissed.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled the drugs could not be used as evidence against Sandor Rigo because the officer did not have reasonable grounds to search his vehicle.
A police dog had seemed to indicate it detected drugs in the man’s van by sitting down, a signal to the dog’s handler it had found something.
However, an expert witness criticized the officer’s dog handling and claimed the dog only “partially sat down” and didn’t make a clear indication narcotics were present.
The judge has found Rigo’s Charter Rights were violated in the search, and again when he was not offered the right to contact a lawyer.