19-year sentence in massive cocaine importation scheme

After the arrest of the a cohort in a breathtakingly bold scheme to move tons of cocaine into Canada, Adam Kaup simply awaited the knock at the door that would end his own freedom.

The 43-year-old New Hamburg resident pleaded guilty this week to helping import 1,512 one-kilogram bricks of cocaine that were to be delivered to a Brantford warehouse in 2022.

Kaup also acknowledged a previous successful plan that appears to have brought in another large shipment in 2021 that went undetected by police.

“It’s breathtaking,” said Justice Gethin Edward as he sentenced Kaup to 19 years in prison.

“To see this young man who grew up on a farm get involved in a situation where a tonne-and-a-half of cocaine is seized is breathtaking, the amount is breathtaking, the time he’ll spend in penitentiary is breathtaking.

“It (shows), when you get involved in this kind of activity, boy, can you ever get kicked in the butt in a big hurry.”

According to facts read into the record, Kaup was the logistics man behind the 2022 drug shipment which was deeply hidden behind the thick steel walls of a hydraulic door press machine that landed in Saint John, NB, destined for KP Heavy Equipment at a Mohawk Street warehouse.

The Canada Border Service Agency found the concealed drugs, which were valued at between $60 million and $181 million, depending on whether they would have been sold to dealers or those on the street.

That investigation found the same warehouse received a shipment of submersible pumps the previous year from the same source in Costa Rica.

Identical pumps were tracked by US Homeland Security to a seizure in Philadelphia and by the UK National Crime Agency in Britain, and found to contain 37 and 141 one-kilogram bricks of cocaine.

After police seized cell phones, GPS devices and Spypoint cameras connected to the three local men charged, they found images of the men receiving similar pumps in 2021.

The evidence compiled against those accused included forensic voice comparisons, pointing to the identity of those using aliases, and banking records.

A two-year investigation in Costa Rica also resulted in numerous arrests among a group responsible for shipping bulk cocaine to Europe, Asia and North America.

Kaup has a record of cocaine involvement.

In 2010, he was sentenced to 70 months in a US prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

In 2018, he narrowly missed being convicted of possession of cocaine for trafficking in Kitchener when he and his partner argued the large amount of drugs found in their home – along with a cutting agent, digital scales and a money counter – were for personal use.

Kaup was convicted of simple possession of the drug but possession of marijuana and hash for trafficking.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Shachter said Kaup’s record, leadership role over many months in the conspiracy and sheer volume of the drugs, would normally have had the Crown seeking a life sentence for the man.

“Mr. Kaup expressed his intentions to plead guilty extremely early,” Shachter said, adding that the drug seizure – said to be the largest single seizure in Canada – was “a testament to law enforcement” and took an incredible amount of cocaine off the streets.

Defense lawyer William Jacksa said his client “could have got on a plane and left the country” when his cohort was arrested, but realized it wouldn’t have solved anything.

“A trial with this volume of evidence and multiple defendants could have taken months,” Jacksa noted.

Kaup apologized to the community and his family, telling the judge he felt like he was having a heart attack waiting for the knock at the door that announced the arrival of police.

“I couldn’t tell anyone. I couldn’t leave my family. It got out of hand and I really didn’t know what to do.”

The judge compared Kaup awaiting a knock at the door to the many families who have found police officers at their doors to tell them a loved one died of a drug overdose.

“(Cocaine) is a killer and we know that.

“I think the community should be impressed by (how) the police were able to investigate this. I’m not naive enough to think there isn’t more coming in – there were items that didn’t get seized.

“But for a ton-and-a-half of cocaine to be taken off the streets, the police are to be commended.”

Others who stand accused in the scheme are Brantford’s Kyle Alexander Purvis, 35, and Vincenzo Capotorto, 48.

Purvis has pleaded guilty and returns to court in August.

Capotorto – know as the operator of a controversial Brantford tire recycling company ten years ago – is said to have owned the Mohawk Street warehouse. His case is set for a pre-trial in the fall.

Both men are charged with importing cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine.

[email protected]

@EXPSGamble