A drug bust, resulting in eight arrests on June 28, kept the court busy in Estevan.
During provincial court on June 29, four of those arrested were remanded in custody until Monday, while the other four were released on conditions. Charges range from drug trafficking, including cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, and all are alleged to be in possession of cash obtained from the proceeds of crime.
Raven Engel, 19; Jason Lunn, 31; Dylan Hauck, 19; and Gerald Kanigan, 45, were all remanded until Monday.
During Monday's provincial court proceedings, there was an agreement by the Crown and Legal Aid counsel, who represented Lunn, Hauck and Kanigan, that the accused, as well as Engel, be released under a non-cash recognizance. Judge Karl Bazin ordered their release.
The four men were released with a number of conditions, including abiding by a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., abstaining from drugs and alcohol, reporting weekly to the Estevan police and submitting to a search by a peace officer of their person, vehicle and house on reasonable suspicion, while not being subject to more than three searches of their residence each month.
Those four are scheduled to reappear in court on Aug. 15.
Michael Baguma, 28; Benjamin Decker, 24; Gregory Beston, 23, of Regina; Naiomi McArthur, 26, of Regina, were each released on Thursday under a non-cash recognizance with conditions.
Judge James Benison questioned one particularly severe condition the federal Crown was asking to place on those released, calling it "going too far."
The condition states that the accused must submit him or herself to a search of his or her person, vehicle or house by a peace officer without reason, limiting searches without cause of the accused's house to a maximum of three per month.
Benison said he wasn't prepared to allow the condition, unless the search condition read "with reasonable and probable grounds."
Crown prosecutor Stephen Dribnenki said because of the nature of the charges, the condition was one he has regularly included as a requirement. He told the judge that without the condition, he was not agreeable to the release of those four accused, who were not represented by legal counsel.
The same conditions applied to all four accused, so each of them had to agree to the condition in order to be released, which they did.
The charges laid were for incidents that took place over a number of days, but the alleged offences all happened between April 29 and June 16. On the day of teh arrest, Beston was also charged for unlawful possession of a Schedule 3 substance and unlawfully possessing brass knuckles.
He had an added condition in his release that he is prohibited from possessing any firearm, ammunition or explosive substance, and the four accused who were released on Thursday are under a condition of non-contact with any of their fellow accused.
Four vehicles were seized during the arrests on June 28.
Baguma, Beston, Decker and McArthur are all set to make appearances in Estevan provincial court on July 18. These four are all under curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and are not to be outside of a 100 kilometre radius of their residence except to attend court or speak with legal counsel.
Two more Estevan residents were charged in relation to these offences on June 28. Hussein Saleh Daud, 28; and Richard Stregger, 43; were also charged but have not made court appearances yet.
Six others were arrested on drug charges in Yorkton on June 28.
In other court business, Joseph Waters, of Estevan, was released from custody after being arrested on assault charges. Waters entered guilty pleas to the charges and was released, to come back to court on Sept. 8 for sentencing after a pre-sentence report was ordered.
