A suspended Hamilton police officer fed drug traffickers sensitive information and favours in return for cash payments, a Crown attorney said Monday during his opening address to a Toronto jury.Craig Ruthowsky, a former member of the Hamilton Police Service’s guns and gangs unit, has pleaded not guilty to obstruct justice, bribery, breach of trust, trafficking and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.He became ensnared in a Toronto Police Service wiretap investigation called Project Pharaoh aimed at gathering evidence of drug and firearm trafficking in Toronto’s west end, Crown attorney John Pollard said in Superior Court.The information he allegedly supplied to drug dealers included times and locations of pending search warrants, the identity of confidential informants, the working hours of certain police units and covert investigative techniques, Pollard said during his nearly hour-long, detailed description of the expected evidence.That shared intelligence “allowed those who were party to the scheme to evade detection and prosecution,” Pollard said. “It made them better, more effective, drug traffickers.”The prosecution alleges Ruthowsky’s conduct “compromised police investigations both big and small, from roadside traffic stops to large, sprawling, wiretap-based projects.”In so doing, “Ruthowsky breached his statutory duties under the Police Services Act, duties that require him to investigate diligently and prevent the commission of criminal offences, as well as his duty to apprehend those responsible,” Pollard said.The Crown also alleges Ruthowsky participated in two separate drug trafficking schemes, in one instance by allegedly letting a drug trafficker enter a marijuana grow operation and leave with half of a harvest.Ruthowsky also participated in cocaine trafficking by taking an unknown cutting agent to a private lab for identification, Pollard said. The identification allowed the ...
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