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The seizure of fifty kilograms of cocaine in Vermont was behind how an aged couple have been kidnapped from their dwelling within the state of New York and smuggled into Canada, the place they have been held in opposition to their will for 2 days in Magog.

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Guillaume Poirier, the lead Sûreté du Québec investigator within the case in opposition to Gary Arnold, 54, revealed the motive whereas testifying Thursday morning to the jury listening to the accused’s trial on the Montreal courthouse. Poirier has been an investigator with the SQ’s crimes in opposition to individuals division since 2013.

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Sandra and James Helm have been grabbed from their dwelling in Moira, N.Y. on the evening of Sept. 27, 2020. They have been introduced throughout the border at Akwasasne by boat and pushed to a home in Magog.

Arnold is alleged to have been a part of the conspiracy to kidnap the couple. He faces seven prices in all within the case.

Poirier described the investigation as a “race in opposition to time” as a result of the aim was to search out the couple alive. The morning after Sandra and James Helm have been kidnapped, their son Michael realized they’d disappeared and contacted the New York State police. Poirier stated the SQ was knowledgeable later the identical day that the couple may need been taken to Quebec.

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Poirier stated the SQ’s investigation started by asking a cellphone firm to make use of geo-localization to find out the place James Helm’s cellphone was. He stated the cellphone firm was in a position to hint Helm’s cellphone to a degree on Freeway 95 within the state of New York at 11 p.m. the evening the couple was kidnapped. It additionally positioned the cellphone at someplace in the midst of the St. Lawrence River after 9 a.m. the next morning.

When requested to clarify why a number of regulation enforcement businesses on each side of the border have been concerned within the investigation, Poirier stated all the pieces started six days earlier when Mackenzie Helm, the couple’s grandson, was arrested in Vermont as a part of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation.

Poirier stated 50 kilograms of cocaine have been seized when he was arrested.

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“The principle motive why the occasion occurred was the seizure of medicine. We’re speaking about 50 kilograms of cocaine that was seized in Vermont,” Poirier stated. “That occurred on Sept. 21, 2020.”

In her opening assertion to the jury when the trial started this week, prosecutor Kim Chaiken stated two of the individuals who kidnapped the couple known as their son Michael, Mackenzie’s uncle, and stated they’d trade Sandra and James Helm for both Mackenzie Helm, medication or cash.

pcherry@postmedia.com