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Former Winnipeg Blue Bomber Robert "Eddie" Blake and his co-accused Nick Chyzy were in court this morning for the beginning of the scaled-down hearing to determine what evidence will be admissible in their case, and if there is enough evidence to go to trial, among other things.
The hearing had originally been expected to take more than two weeks, but has now been reduced to only a handful of witnesses.
A court-ordered publication ban prevents any of the evidence presented at the hearing from being published.
Blake and Chyzy were among 17 people, including 10 Manitobans, arrested in September 2004 in a project called Operation Diversion.
Police allege the accused were running a criminal network that smuggled ephedrine from a Thunder Bay, Ont., bodybuilding supply company called Pumpuii Energy Products through Winnipeg, Lac du Bonnet, and Hanna, Alta. From there, the ephedrine was allegedly repackaged for sale to underground drug labs in Vancouver, Buffalo and Sacramento, Calif., where it was being used to make crystal meth, one of the most lucrative and destructive illegal drugs on the market.
During those September 2004 raids, cops seized 20,000 pounds of ephedrine, $3.5 million in cash and several other things, including a few Dodge Vipers and some other vehicles.
Also arrested were Dwight Mushey, who is now in jail in Ontario charged with first-degree murder in the 2006 massacre of eight Bandidos bikers, and Manny Barbagianis, whose fatal shooting in Winnipeg's West End in 2006 remains one of the city's few unsolved murders.
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