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Sentencing hearing for N.S. sailboat captain found with large stash of cocaine

A Canada Border Services Agency officer inspects the sailboat Quesera at East River Marine in Hubbards, N.S., on Friday, Sept. 8, 2017. Approximately 273 kilograms of suspected cocaine were found on the vessel and two men were arrested.
A Canada Border Services Agency officer inspects the sailboat Quesera at East River Marine in Hubbards, N.S., on Friday, Sept. 8, 2017. Approximately 273 kilograms of suspected cocaine were found on the vessel and two men were arrested. Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press

A sentencing hearing is being held today for a Nova Scotia sailboat captain who pleaded guilty to two drug charges after 273 kilograms of cocaine were found hidden in his vessel.

Sixty-eight-year-old Jacques John Grenier entered the pleas last November after the Canada Border Services Agency boarded the boat in September at a marina near Halifax.

READ MORE: Nova Scotia sailboat captain pleads guilty to two cocaine-related charges

Officers found several bricks of cocaine hidden inside a sealed bed frame on the Canadian-registered, eight-metre boat called Quesera, which had arrived from the small Caribbean island of Saint Martin.

Canada Border Services Agency and Nova Scotia RCMP seized about 273 kilograms of suspected cocaine on a vessel in Lunenburg County. Canada Border Services Agency

A third charge – conspiracy to commit an indictable offence – will be dealt with at the sentencing hearing in Halifax provincial court.

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The agency said at the time that it was unusual to find such a large stash in a small boat.

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The seizure came after about 200 kilograms of hashish were found hidden inside chocolate bars stacked in a shipping container at the Port of Halifax last May.

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