Canadian navy reeling from cocaine scandal - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Canadian navy reeling from cocaine scandal

Canadian navy commanders are reviewing their service’s drug-testing policies amid a growing scandal over “widespread cocaine abuse and drug trafficking” that involves as much as a third of a patrol ship’s crew and the equivalent of its command master chief, a Canadian newspaper reported.

Four Canadian sailors have been kicked out of the service and three convicted of cocaine trafficking, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported Aug. 14., in connection with a cocaine ring aboard the HMCS Saskatoon, a 181-foot patrol ship.

“In my 38-year-long career, I have never seen such an appalling sight,” said Chief Leonard Hearns, who was assigned in January 2006 to deal with the ship’s drug situation. “The ship was disorganized, there was no discipline and no trust among the crew.”

Former sailor Jason Ennis, 24, was convicted in a court-martial of trafficking cocaine and fined $2,000. He said in court that as many as a dozen members of the ship’s 31-person crew were using cocaine regularly at one point.

The next step in the navy’s legal proceedings will be the October court-martial of former Chief Robert Carlson, the Saskatoon’s coxswain, its most senior-most enlisted sailor.

Two other crew members were convicted of trafficking and each fined $500 earlier this year.