RCMP blasted for 'shocking' payout to informant

Drug convictions tossed after police gave $400,000 to ‘unsavoury witness’

- STEVE BUIST

The RCMP paid more than $400,000 to a police informant once connected to a corrupt Hamilton cop to help them obtain guilty verdicts in a supposed drug smuggling operation at Pearson airport.

But now the case — and the informant’s reputation — is in tatters after Ontario’s Court of Appeal threw out the convictions against a Kitchener airplane mechanic, ruling he was the victim of entrapment.

The panel of three judges called the informant’s payment of more than $400,000 “a shocking piece of evidence,” according to their March 18 decision, which gave the informant a “significant financial motive to lie.”

Andrzej Krawczyk was convicted in September 2021 of attempting to import cocaine, and possession of $12,500 as the proceeds of crime.

Krawczyk was an airplane mechanic for Sunwing based at Pearson when he was enticed into a sting operation by the informant and an undercover RCMP officer.

Krawczyk was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2022. He spent “well over a year” in jail, according to his lawyer, until he was released on parole. He’s now living in Toronto.

The Appeal Court ordered a new trial for Krawczyk at which he could apply for a stay of proceedings based on the entrapment.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said it is reviewing the decision to determine if it will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

According to the informant’s deal with the RCMP, he received $300,000 by the time of the trial in 2021 and a further $100,000 after testifying. He was also being paid a “maintenance fee” of $3,000 per month after signing an agreement with the RCMP in March 2019.