RCMP may have planted dope, Murrin says

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008 | 10:29 AM ET

CBC News

A St. John's-area man who was involved in one of Canada's most notorious murder trials suggested Tuesday that the RCMP may have planted drugs that led to a recent arrest.

Shannon Murrin, who was arrested with two other men on trafficking charges in November, appeared in provincial court in Gander.

Shannon Murrin appeared in a Gander courtroom Tuesday on a drug trafficking charge.
(CBC)

A jury found Murrin not guilty of murder in 2000 in the 1994 death of eight-year-old Kelowna, B.C., girl Mindy Tran.

The RCMP said they found a large amount of marijuana and contraband cigarettes in the back of a pickup truck last fall in central Newfoundland.

Murrin, who returned to Newfoundland and relocated to Portugal Cove-St. Philip's after his acquittal in the Tran case, said Tuesday he has no connection to what police seized. 

"I have no idea — maybe the RCMP planted them," Murrin said as he walked into court.

Asked if the drugs had appeared out of nowhere, Murrin replied, "It appears that way, buddy."

The case was set over. Murrin is expected to return to provincial court in March.

Murrin, by his own admission, has had a difficult relationship over the years with police. Last year, he claimed he was being framed in the shooting deaths of Dale Worthman and Kimberly Lockyer, a Portugal Cove-St. Philip's couple who were last seen in 1993.

Their bodies were not found until 2006.