Montreal Judge Throws The Book at Corrupt Prison Guard

MONTREAL While he was smuggling drugs into the Montreal Detention Centre where he worked as a guard, Pierre Arold Agnant dreamed of using the money to buy a luxury home he could retire to in his native Haiti.

His accommodations for at least the next four years will be considerably less comfortable. Agnant, 47, was sentenced yesterday to the equivalent of a nine-year prison term, less one year for the time he has already served behind bars. Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau also ordered that Agnant must serve half of the remaining eight years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Agnant did not react to the sentence. He was convicted in December of breach of trust, drug trafficking, conspiracy and committing a crime for a criminal organization.

Prosecutor Richard Audet said he believes the nine-year prison term is the harshest sentence a guard has ever received in Canada for smuggling drugs into a prison. In 2008, Alice English, another former guard at the Montreal Detention Centre, received a 66-month sentence for attempting to smuggle in drugs. In her case the court heard evidence she made just one attempt. Agnant smuggled in contraband at least 19 times.

Because the sentence is more than two years Agnant will likely be deported to Haiti when paroled. Criminals who are not Canadian citizens and are sentenced to more than two years are not able to appeal decisions made by the Immigration and Refugee Board. Agnant moved to Canada, from Haiti sometime after 1994 and is a permanent resident.

He began working as a provincial prison guard in 1999 and, by 2006, reached a position that gave him some authority over other guards at the prison. With his salary and overtime he was making $80,000 annually at the time he was arrested on June 20, 2007, in Project Chorale, a Sûreté du Québec investigation into how Gustave Jean, 38, was able to smuggle drugs into the detention centre.

Jean, reportedly a member of a Montreal street gang, was inside the detention centre while awaiting trial when Project Chorale began. Agnant became a suspect by Christmas 2006 and through wiretaps the SQ learned he brought in marijuana, cocaine and hashish, as well as alcohol and cellphones.

Charbonneau said evidence heard during the trial revealed Agnant made anywhere between $40,000 and $70,000 while he worked for Jean, who is currently serving a 61⁄2-year prison term he received in Project Chorale.

Charboneau said Agnants role was crucial to supplying Jean with drugs while explaining why she felt the former prison guard merited a stronger sentence than that of the ringleader. Jean would use a cellphone to call his son, Carl Jean, from the detention centre.

The drugs were compressed using a hydraulic press and stuffed into the false bottoms of soft drink cans, potato chip containers and cans of soup before they were given to Agnant. He would sneak the food containers into the prison using nothing more than his back pack and was never searched.

One of the people receiving the drugs inside the prison was Jaccin Eloi, 37, a man who has never set foot inside Canada as a free man. While Agnant was smuggling in drugs, Eloi was behind bars because he was facing charges of trying to smuggle nearly a kilo of heroin into Canada through Trudeau airport. Eloi moved to New York from Haiti in 2005. He tried to smuggle the heroin into Canada for a New York-based drug trafficking ring in 2006. He has since been sentenced to a three-year prison term for the heroin and has to serve a 53-month sentence he received in Project Chorale consecutive to that.

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[dryan2]

I expected an actual book to be thrown ...

[actonbath]

One down and 500 to go.......

[killallnazis1955]

thumbs up if you were born in 1955

[tempster]

@dcdunlap45 Holy shit. You need to get your ass in school because you can't spell for your life.

[RedSkiesAwaitUs]

Oh noes, prisoners are getting cannabis.. what an evil man. *roll eyes*

[remsensor]

I dont know why but I cannot stand the news reports voice. It irritates the shit out of my and makes me want to punch him and scream shut up!

[qone1200]

@dryan2 lol me too!!!

[dcdunlap45]

good mu brother is in penalton for false info and no is be exsorted by the oregon lawnforcement the sestum suck when the person dont even work for incent people and u have to pay them to stay alive wather it a cande bar or any comincary it is currpte and i hope the rath offfff GOD rains on them W W J D