Andrew Morawski,well-known Cannifton Road metal artist was sentenced to four years in a federal penitentiary

Andrew Morawski,well-known Cannifton Road metal artist was sentenced to four years in a federal penitentiary for his part in an elaborate scheme to deal cocaine across the Quinte region. Andrew Morawski, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an indictable offence for his role of being an upper-level cocaine salesman-debt collector on behalf of one of three criminal gangs who toiled in the drug trade in Eastern Ontario. Morawski was one of 27 arrested as part of an 18-month undercover police probe dubbed Project Fortitude: an operation that culminated last August when 350 tactical officers simultaneously raided 37 different locations stretching from Toronto to Napanee — with the bulk being within the Quinte region.
In addition to the arrests, police seized more than $7 million in drugs, guns and property as part of the initiative, which investigators claimed cut the legs from under major drug traffickers in the Bay of Quinte region. Morawski is the first of the Fortitude arrests to be dealt with. The single father of one was caught both on police wire taps and during surveillance operations working for one of “three separate conspiracy groups” selling cocaine and other drugs in the local area, recalled Crown prosecutor Pamela Larmondin Thursday, while reading from a joint sentencing submission. On behalf of the head of his criminal group, Morawski “was selling cocaine at the ounce level ... (and) collecting debts” from users and other dealers, she said. During the course of his criminal duties, Morawski would often threaten to use members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang to collect any outstanding arrears from anyone who couldn’t pay up. He “was quite active and indeed selling up to multiple ounces (of cocaine) per week,” Larmondin said, noting Morawski’s teenaged son “was assisting” with the distribution scheme. When police searched his Cannifton Road home last August, about 34 grams of cocaine, some marijuana and seven marijuana plants were seized, she added. Defence lawyer Scott McMahon lamented the circumstances his client found himself in a little more than a year ago, saying Morawski was “one of a handful of people in Canada” who demonstrate a unique talent working with metals as an artist.To bolster his claim, McMahon presented numerous magazine clippings in addition to letters from art critics, museum curators and others in the art industry telling of “what kind of a contribution (Morawski) has made to metal artwork. Morawski, who moved to this area in the 1990s, has also made appearances on CityTV's Breakfast Television, a popular Toronto program and was featured on a U.S. home show. “It’s a crying shame,” McMahon said while chronicling his client’s achievements. That said, Morawski “came to court with dirty hands” and wanted to come clean by pleading guilty at the earliest possible date, McMahon said. In agreeing with the joint submission for sentencing, Judge Stephen Hunter noted Morawski’s 135 days spent in pre-trial custody. “And I find this sentence appropriate, given all the circumstances,” Hunter said. “Certainly, Mr. Morawski, it appears you have a lot to offer the community in a number of ways.”