Niagara Regional Police Service PHOTO
16.06.2015

When Your Local Cops Are Steroid Dealers, Part 5 – The Niagara Regional Police Service

Geoff Purdie, a 13-year veteran constable with the Niagara Regional Police Serivce (NRPS), had grown accustomed to the perks and privileges associated with being a police constable. Flashing that NRPS badge helped him gain all sorts of special and preferential treatment in various social settings outside the scope of his job description. Purdie even used it to help him smuggle anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Cops who moonlight as steroid dealers is surprisingly not that uncommon. But most cops who decide to become international drug smugglers are not as brazen as Purdie. On behalf of several clients in the criminal underworld, this Canadian cop would physically drive his car into the United States, pick up a load of steroids and bring them back across the border with him. He thought it was nice and easy money to supplement his cop’s salary.

Purdie had set up a private mailbox address in Niagara Falls (New York) where he would have the steroids shipped. Then he would travel to pick them up and complete his drug-run from Niagara Falls (USA) back to Fort Erie (Canada).

Purdie made no concerted effort to conceal the stash of drugs in his vehicle as he attempted to leave the United States across the Peace International Bridge. He relied solely on his status as a law enforcement officer to help him bypass scrutiny. And it worked every single time until the time it didn’t.

Purdie must have been shocked to see U.S. federal officers waiting to arrest him as he was leaving the United States on April 5, 2012. Since when did border control officers start caring about illegal drugs leaving the country especially steroids?

It turned out that Purdie was the target of an active investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Border Enforcement Security Task Force. Federal agents had been conducting surveillance on Purdie and documenting his illicit activities for several months. They knew he was involved in the transport of huge amounts of steroids, human growth hormone (hGH), Xanax and Valium. They knew his modus operandis was to flash his NRPS badge. And they knew he was the hired mule for criminals in a larger Canadian steroid and drug distribution ring.

When Purdie was arrested, an estimated street value of $580,000 worth of PEDs were discovered in his vehicle. Purdie pleaded guilty to smuggling anabolic steroids. But federal prosecutors agreed to drop the charge of conspiracy to export controlled substances with the intent to distribute after Purdie agreed to be their snitch. Purdie would offer his full cooperation in the investigation of other individuals involved in the steroid distribution ring. The plea agreement spared Purdie from a prison sentence as long as 10 years. Instead, Purdie spent one year in the United States as a guest of the Bureau of Prisons before being deported back to Canada.

Purdie is one Canadian that is no longer welcomed in the United States. If he ever wants to visit his neighboring country again, he will be required to obtain the explicit written permission from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Back home, Purdie will return to without a job. He was predictably and summarily fired from his $80,000 per year constable job. And now in Canada, he is known as a “dirty cop” to the general public and a “snitch” to his former colleagues in law enforcement.

The Complete Series: When Your Local Cops Are Steroid Dealers

 

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