How a major undercover investigation nabbed a corrupt rookie Surrey Mountie
Dawwd Soukary had been a Surrey RCMP recruit for less than six months when a call came in to the detachment on Aug. 2, 2020.
By Kim Bolan
Last updated 2 days ago
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Dawwd Soukary had been a RCMP constable for less than six months when a tipster called the Surrey detachment on Aug. 2, 2020.
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The person made the shocking claim that Soukary “had participated in a drug transaction while off-duty.”
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The officer who spoke to the caller, identified only as MB in court, immediately went to his supervisor, who reported the allegations to the RCMP’s anticorruption unit.
Thus began a months-long sting involving undercover officers — some posing as corrupt cops, others as drug dealers — participating in elaborate scenarios to snare the unwitting Soukary.
Details of the complex investigation were laid out in an agreed statement of facts entered in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster in April, as Soukary pleaded guilty to one count of breach of trust. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Dawn Roberts, the B.C. RCMP’s director of communications, said the guilty plea “represents and reflects the results of the significant work done by the B.C. RCMP anticorruption unit to address serious allegations” against the probationary constable.
As the investigation began, “Soukary was placed under constant direct supervision and became part of a part of an innovative covert operation involving undercover operators and a ‘false’ reality,” Roberts said.
Postmedia listened to a recording of April’s proceedings before Justice Murray Blok, in which the agreed statement was read by prosecutor Peter Campbell. There is a publication ban on the identities of the RCMP officers involved in the undercover investigation. Postmedia is identifying them as UC-1 through UC-5.
The original tipster, MB, provided the anticorruption unit with “CCTV footage showing Soukary engaged in what the complainant said was a drug transaction,” Blok heard.
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“MB told the (anticorruption) investigators that Soukary had asked MB to arrange for the purchase of a significant amount of a scheduled 1 substance for two of Soukary’s associates.”
The agreed statement does not name any specific gang or criminal organization. Soukary’s associates are only identified as MN and AH. Campbell explained that the initials referred to either a last name, then first name of unindicted co-conspirators — or the reverse, a first name, then last name.
MB told investigators that he provided the sought-after drugs to Soukary, but that Soukary never paid for them.
The tipster also said that Soukary claimed “that once he was done his recruit field training, he intended to access police databases to obtain information for associates.”
After much planning, the sting began when the lead RCMP agent, UC-1, approached Soukary in October 2020 and offered him a plum assignment — would he assume an undercover role to befriend the target of a drug investigation? He would be a good fit because both Soukary and the target liked basketball. It was a voluntary assignment, the rookie officer was told.
Soukary was pumped. He told UC-1 “that he was eager to participate in undercover work and was hyped up at the opportunity to join the undercover operation which was to him ‘the dream,’” the agreed statement said.
His acceptance was followed by 43 “scenarios consisting of preplanned social engagements” between Soukary and his partner and mentor during the investigation, UC-3. There were another 16 scenarios related to the sham drug undercover operation. All were surreptitiously recorded.
Soukary was told that he was joining an organized crime investigation being conducted by B.C.’s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. The sham target was actually another officer, UC-2, posing as a high-level drug trafficker.
The mentor, UC-3, also “pretended to be corrupt” by telling the rookie that he hung out with criminals in his off hours even though he knew it violated the RCMP’s code of conduct. UC-3’s purported girlfriend was another cop, UC-4, who “portrayed herself as a cannabis user/distributor.” UC-5 posed as UC-3’s childhood best friend and a “street level drug trafficker in Whistler.”
UC-3 and Soukary quickly bonded.
“Soukary quickly began talking with UC-3 about his associates, including MN and AH,” the agreed statement said. “Soukary also provided information to UC-3 that he knew MN and AH had connections to drug trafficking and other criminal activities.”
Soukary soon introduced his cop partner to both his gangster pals.
The undercover officers made Soukary feel comfortable about misusing the police databases by pretending in front of the rookie to have abused the system themselves.
“Text me that info later,” UC-5 asked UC-3 “while mimicking the finger movements of typing on a computer.” The same undercover officer later asked within earshot of Soukary: “Did you do that thing — remember that licence plate?”
The mentor — UC-3 — later apologized to Soukary and said he knew the rookie had a duty to report him for misusing the computers. Soukary assured him he needn’t worry “because he had the same kind of friends.”
On Nov. 25, 2020, Soukary told the UC-3 that his associates had asked him for information from police databases. Over the course of the investigation, Soukary sent his gangster associates confidential details from daily “real-time” intelligence bulletins and information from “unauthorized queries from police databases,” the agreed statement said.
On Nov. 30, 2020 at 1:10 a.m., Soukary took a photo of a bulletin about a Maple Ridge case and sent it to MN, along with a message: “LMAO.”
“It seems Soukary and MN may have known something about this individual as they found the bulletin humorous.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, Soukary sent a picture of another bulletin seeking information about bricks of cocaine stamped “Omar” to MN. On Jan. 15, he sent a photo of a bulletin seeking to identify three suspects in a shooting at MN’s residence who had dressed up as cops. Some of the messages about police data offered suggestions on suspected drug dealers they could rob and split the profit.
MN repeatedly asked Soukary for personal data about two people, identified only as DR and GK in the agreed statement. After one query, Soukary messaged MN: “I got those addies fam — still need their birthdays or age to confirm its them.”
On New Year’s Day 2021, Soukary queried five partial names “including a further search of the names DR and GK and took photographs of these queries.” After he passed the info to MN, he got a reply: “You are the man.”
The anticorruption investigators believe “that DR and GK are associated to the drug trade of the Lower Mainland of B.C. but were unable to confirm if DR and GK were rivals of MN or his associates.”
After Soukary told UC-3 that he had done the searches for $2,000, his mentor warned him that if harm came to DR or GK, investigators would check the log of database queries.
Soukary sent a panicked text to MN saying if someone “clips these guys … it will bring a lot of heat to me.”
The agreed statement said “there is no evidence that any person was impacted because of the information that Soukary shared.”
As the undercover officers continued to build their sham relationships with Soukary, the fake drug investigation continued. Soukary and his mentor, UC-3, met the cocaine trafficker, UC-2, a few times.
Soukary played basketball with him, often betting on the outcome of their matches.
Soukary was so relaxed with UC-3 that he spoke on the phone in front of him on Jan. 10, 2021, asking someone the price of a kilogram of cocaine. Afterwards, he told UC-3 that “a brick is 60 right now.”
Later that month, Soukary discussed with UC-3 the possibility of paying the purported trafficker less than what they told UC-1 the price would be. That way they could pocket the difference.
On Jan. 27, UC-1 gave Soukary $72,000 of RCMP money to buy the kilo of cocaine. Soukary claimed he had paid the full amount despite having actually negotiated a lower price.
Soukary gave UC-3 $1,000 and kept the rest, saying he was “going to do something with it.”
He was arrested shortly afterwards outside the RCMP’s North Vancouver detachment. The cash was stuffed in his underwear.
Despite the years it took for Soukary to plead guilty, Roberts said the now-31-year-old resigned in June 2021.
“While allegations of this nature are exceedingly rare in the RCMP, they can impact the public’s perspective of us,” she said.
“Our anticorruption unit have become leading experts in their field, and they fully understand the incredible responsibility their mandate has because of the impact these types of investigations have on public trust in confidence in the police.”
Blueksy: @kimbolan.bsky.social
