Nova Scotia RCMP have laid charges against six people after a seven-month investigation revealed a plan to ship cocaine into the Port of Halifax.

Police say they received information last July that the drug, destined for the Canadian market and perhaps the U.S. as well, was being shipped through the Panama Canal and north to Nova Scotia.

Police arrested the six men in the Halifax area on Wednesday:

  • Paul Matthew Arthur, 59, of East Pennant, N.S. is facing charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, attempting to import a controlled substance, trafficking of a scheduled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking.
  • Warren Patrick Clarke, 46, of West Pennant, N.S., John “Dallas” Carleton Dempsey, 46, of Halifax, Justin Carleton Dempsey, 22, of Mount Uniacke, N.S., and Peter Stanley Albert Wood, 38, of Dartmouth are facing charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, trafficking of a scheduled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking.
  • Steven Welsford Jollimore, 51, of Terence Bay, N.S. is facing a charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Arthur was remanded into custody and appeared in Halifax provincial court Thursday morning. The other five were released on conditions are due to appear in court on March 26.

Their plan involved smuggling 200 kilograms of cocaine, police say.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and there could be more charges against more individuals.

Dubbed Operation Hancock, the investigation involved the cooperation with the Canada Border Services Agency and Homeland Security officials from the United States.

“We provided support in the pre-border operations side of it, and also in our front-line operations work with the RCMP in their investigations,” said Albert Price of the Canada Border Services Agency.

The investigation involved the use of a material the suspects thought was cocaine, but was actually a fake material supplied by the RCMP and Border Services, said RCMP Insp. Glenn Lambe.

“The individuals believed it was cocaine, they acted on that premise, they handled the product as if it was cocaine, but there was no cocaine and there was no danger of any cocaine getting out to the general public,” Lambe said.

Even though the drugs weren’t real, it’s enough for a conviction if the handlers believed it was real, police said.

“(The operation) has made a substantial dent in their ability to bring drugs into Canada,” Lambe said.

One of the accused men, Paul Arthur, a former crane operator at the Port of Halifax, was sentenced to prison time in 2003.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw