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Three Indo-Canadian men arrested in a major RCMP-led drug investigation have been acquitted after a judge rejected English-speaking police officers’ identification of who was talking with foreign accents in secret recordings of a large-scale drug conspiracy.It started in July 2019 with information that a man in Vaughan, north of Toronto, was selling fentanyl.
In the August 2020 announcement, police said they busted criminal groups involved in importation, exportation and distribution of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, opium and ketamine. More than 35 kilograms of cocaine and five kilograms of fentanyl, heroin, and opium were seized, along with three vehicles with hidden compartments.
Wiretap recordings of Palumbo speaking on his phone and at meetings in his warehouse were played in court. “The fear, of course, is a wrongful conviction. Much has been spoken of and written about the frailties of eyewitness evidence. But not so for voice identification evidence.”“Shanker’s counsel raised the issue of voice identification particularly in relation to persons who may be speaking with a foreign accent unfamiliar to the wiretap investigators,” Allen wrote.
One officer said the voice was distinctive but had difficulty explaining its distinctiveness, apart from saying it had a South Asian accent and was “very monotone,” according to court. Another said the voice was “unique,” with a certain dialect or tone, but said he did not recognize the accent.“Studies show, and Canadian courts have warned, that voice identification evidence is even more risky to rely on than eyewitness identification and must be treated with the utmost caution.
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