Alleged drug trafficker arrested in Sault's largest fentanyl seizure granted release from prison

The Ontario Superior Court has granted an application to release Richard Anderson Brewster from the Algoma Remand and Treatment Center, subject to a host of strict conditions.

Brewster – aka Richie Stacks, alleged member of Toronto's Driftwood Crips – was arrested along with four others in January 2023 for allegedly trafficking massive quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine in the Sault and Whitby area after police seized more than $1 million in narcotics. as well as packing materials, debt lists, several cell phones and stacks of cash.

The 700 grams of fentanyl seized from a MacDonald Avenue apartment during the drug bust was a record haul for Sault Ste. Marie Police Department.

After initially reserving her decision at a June 4 hearing, Ontario Superior Court Justice Julie Richard told the court Friday that Brewster's release plan was acceptable, given that the The 42-year-old now has four sureties in place who have pledged more than a quarter of a million dollars in total.

He will live with two of these guarantors – Pastor Joseph Mensah and his wife Esther – in Brampton, Ontario. under constant supervision. Brewster will only be allowed to leave the Mensah residence for appointments, employment and to address legal matters.

The pastor has been in daily contact with Brewster since he was refused bail in March last year, with the cleric acting as his “spiritual advisor”, the court heard on Friday. He will be employed by another surety, businesswoman Yvette Spencer, as part of his release plan.

Brewster will be required to wear a GPS ankle monitor at all times. He was also banned from communicating with the four other people initially charged in the January 2023 drug bust, and is banned from going to a condominium in Whitby rented by co-defendant Leyla Ibrahim where more than 6,000 grams of methamphetamine and 100 oxycodone pills. were seized by the Durham Regional Police Service as part of Project Otter.

In addition to these conditions, Brewster may not possess or use any electronic device with an internet connection unsupervised in light of the alleged drug trafficking offenses.

Judge Richard told the court Brewster's release plan was “as strong as possible”.

“You owe your sureties a lot of time,” the judge told Brewster, who appeared virtually from the Algoma Processing and Remand Center Friday morning.

Brewster, Ibrahim and Tequar Jones will face a jury trial in November next year after being charged with numerous offenses under Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act relating to drug trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime. Charges against the other two people indicted in Project Otter – Maurice Fidd and O'Shane Davis-Forbes – have since been dropped.