Drug dealer turned police agent testifies at Whitehorse trial

The shadowy world of an undercover police agent is being revealed in territorial court at the trial of an accused drug trafficker in Whitehorse.

Forty-two year old Jason McMillan is charged with trafficking in cocaine.

The first prosecution witness Monday was described as one of the biggest drug dealers in Whitehorse in his heyday and is now working as a police agent.

The man is in the Witness Protection Program and cannot be identified.

As part of the case against McMillan, he testified about picking up a kilogram of cocaine at a drug associate's home.RCMP forensic expert Staff Sgt. Major Doug Spencer says thatMcMillan's fingerprints were found on that package of cocaine.

The police agent, however, also had to testify about his arrangement with the RCMP.

He said that he worked as an informant for the police beginning around2007. The man admitted he would literally sell out people working underneath him in the drug gang by providing the RCMP with information about their activities.

He says he stopped working with the police because their arrests and drug seizures were interfering too much with his drug operation.

The man acknowledged a defense assertion that at one time he had been one of the biggest drug dealers in Whitehorse, if not the biggest. He says he was buying about two kilos of cocaine every 10 days, paying $75,000 for a kilo and selling it for about $90,000.

The agent says he was recruited again by the RCMP in the spring of 2013.

As part of his recruitment, the agent had to tell police about his past criminal activities. Those activities included beatings. In one instance the agent took part in an assault that resulted in the victim's skull being cracked open with a hammer.

The agent has been given immunity from prosecution for those activities

He says he was open to becoming their agent because he wanted out of the drug business,beginning a normal life.

Over that summer, he says, henegotiated a deal that will see him receive $235,000 from the RCMP, provided he assists with their investigations and testifies in court against former associates.He testified his living expenses are also being covered under the contract he signed with police.

Security at the courthouse was tighter than usual during the agent's testimony. People entering the courtroom were scanned with a metal detector.

The trial continues Tuesday.