Former Winnipeg police officer pleads guilty to selling drugs — including to other officers

A former lake winnipeg police force ship's officer who antecedently pleaded shamed to a long list of charges involving corruption and other inappropriate actions has now also admitted to selling drugs over a period of years — both to civilians and other police officers.

Const. Elston Bostock, who worked with the Winnipeg Police Service for more than two decades before being removed from the force, admitted to trafficking drugs including cocaine and psilocybin between 2016 and 2024 in a Winnipeg courtroom Monday.

Bostock pleaded guilty to selling drugs while on duty as a uniformed police officer, in the parking lots of police stations and from his police vehicle, federal Crown attorney Janna Hyman read from an agreed statement of facts in Manitoba's Court of King's Bench.

Hyman said there was no evidence Bostock was motivated by profit, and called his drug trafficking “akin to social trafficking to friends and colleagues.”

The drugs he sold were personal-use amounts for the buyers, and Bostock was paid for the drugs in a mix of cash, bartered items and favours, she said.

The details of his drug trafficking came to light after Bostock’s cellphone was seized by police in 2024 following a lengthy investigation dubbed Project Fibre.

The more than a dozen incidents detailed in court included Bostock giving drugs like psilocybin, MDMA and cannabis to other officers — like once in July 2024, when he offered to bring one of his colleagues MDMA gummies and joints as a birthday present.

On one occasion in November 2020, an officer messaged Bostock about getting cannabis edibles and psilocybin because he was “leery of online sites.” Bostock shared prices with the officer, and told him “he was at ‘special duty’ and just had 50mg of cannabis edibles on his way in and the effects lasted for three hours.”

In another July 2022 incident, an officer asked if he could get more psilocybin from Bostock, which Bostock asked to trade for cold brew concentrate.

Another time in February 2023, an officer asked Bostock for a specific controlled anti-anxiety medication without a prescription, saying he planned to apply to transfer to another police force and wanted the drugs to help him “get through” a required lie detector test.

The incidents where Bostock sold drugs to friends included him dropping off MDMA gummies while working the night shift in October 2023 and August 2024, asking a friend to pick up a “ball” — or 3.5 grams — of cocaine from his home “because his daughter was napping,” and telling someone in September 2024 to come pick up cannabis edibles while Bostock was working at the legislative building.

“Tell protective services guy…that you are here to see the policeman and I’ll walk down,” Bostock told that person, according to the agreed statement of facts.

On another occasion, Bostock asked a cocaine supplier to pick up a $500 payment from him at the police station on Grant Avenue in July 2022. Another time, he he was discussing cannabis with with a friend, and said he had edibles in his police car “but he was stuck guarding a scene where a fire killed people so he might be late dropping them off.”

In July 2022, Bostock also arranged for a friend to buy from Bostock’s cocaine supplier, and advised the friend about whether to take the drugs on a flight — saying “not if through Winnipeg International where there could be dogs, but okay if on a smaller flight out of St Andrews,” the statement of facts said.

“Bostock cites his police experience for this knowledge,” it said.

The other offences Bostock previously pleaded guilty to included getting traffic tickets voided in exchange for liquor and gift cards, stealing cannabis from a police scene, sharing confidential police information and sending lewd texts about a photo he took of the nearly naked body of a woman who had fatally overdosed.

Court previously heard the investigation into Bostock started after police got reports from multiple confidential sources that the officer had been associating with and providing police information to people involved in illicit activity. 

His guilty pleas were entered as part of a deal that will see Bostock’s lawyers ask for nothing less than a penitentiary sentence and provincial Crown attorneys cap their request at six years. Court previously heard prosecutors were expected to ask for a consecutive sentence of a year for the drug charge.

Bostock’s sentencing hearing on all his charges is scheduled for next week. Court previously heard that date was expected to happen after a psychological report requested by his defence was complete.

Reporter

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