WinnipegFIRST

• Posted: May 6th 2007, 11:26 / Written by: Kathleen Martens
• Tagged as: news, crime, hells angel, ian grant, franco atanasovic, ian garber

After listening to nearly two months of testimony - some of it as expletive-laden as an episode of The Sopranos - a jury this morning found Winnipeg Hells Angel Ian Grant guilty.

Grant was convicted of various counts of drug trafficking and extortion, but the jury found him not guilty of participating in a criminal organization.

Some of the crimes carry maximum life sentences.

Grant showed no emotion at the verdict and was later seen smiling and joking with his fiancee and family members, says Winnipeg Sun court reporter Dean Pritchard who was in the courtroom.

The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon. "At 9:30 (a.m. this morning) we got the call the jury was ready," Pritchard tells winnipegFIRST.ca.

Acquitting Grant of being a member of a criminal organization may have been a sticking point. "I assume that's the one that gave the jury the most trouble," Pritchard says of the marathon jury deliberation.

No date has been set for Grant's sentencing.

Grant was arrested with 12 others in February 2006 following a police sting called Project Defense that used career criminal and police informant Franco Atanasovic as a secret agent. Atanasovic was paid $525,000 to infiltrate the outlaw motorcycle gang.

Jurors heard hours of expletive-laden conversation between Grant and Atanasovic who wore a hidden recording device when he met the biker. But Atanasovic also hid from his police handlers hundreds of secret calls he made to Grant on the side.

Grant's lawyer Ian Garber told the court this morning he intends to make a motion to set the verdict aside. Garber claims he could not mount a proper defence because of the "untrustworthiness" of the mole.