THUNDER BAY – The man convicted of drug trafficking and accused of running a criminal organization returned to the courtroom Tuesday, less than a week after being sentenced to nearly 10 years in jail.
A pretrial hearing was held at the Thunder Bay Courthouse for John Harry Tsekouras on a second set of charges, which include conspiracy to commit murder, stemming from the Project Dolphin investigations. Evidence linked to those charges are protected by a publication ban.
Crown attorney Claude Richer said the hearing for Tsekouras and co-accused Rory Pelletier is scheduled to last two hours and includes a summary of witnesses and evidence both the prosecution and defence plan to introduce in future proceedings.
Richer added there might be multiple pretrial hearings in the case.
The charges include conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to kidnap as well as multiple counts of conspiracy to traffic marijuana.
When charges were announced police said the intended kidnapping and murder did not occur though they did not provide any information about the alleged target.
The second set of charges were laid in June 2013, more than a year after Tsekouras was originally arrested in April 2012. None of them have been tested in court.
Last week Tsekouras was convicted of trafficking cocaine and marijuana as well as conspiracy to traffic cocaine and marijuana.
