Nova Scotia gunman allegedly smuggled guns and drugs from U.S.: court docs

UPDATE – July 31, 2020. The RCMP has released a statement attempting to clarify what was contained in the court documents. Read more here.

The gunman in the Nova Scotia shooting that killed 22 people was alleged to have trafficked drugs and firearms from the United States, according to newly unsealed documents from Nova Scotia Provincial Court.

Following the shooting, one unidentified witness told police that they were aware that “[Gabriel Wortman] had smuggled guns and drugs from Maine for years and had a stockpile of guns,” the documents say.

“Gabriel Wortman smuggled drugs from Maine and had a bag of 10,000 oxy-contin pills and 15,000 dilaudid from a reservation in New Brunswick,” a witness told Halifax Regional Police, according to the documents.

The same witness, who first met the gunman in 2011, also told police that the gunman “builds fires and burns bodies, is a sexual predator, and supplies drugs in Portapique and Economy, Nova Scotia.”

The new allegations, which have not been tested in court, were made in search warrant applications that investigators filed following the shooting to collect evidence on the gunman’s properties in Portapique, N.S., and Dartmouth, N.S., as well as vehicles and electronic devices.

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Unredacted portions of the documents were made public Monday after media organizations, including Global News, fought in court to have the previously redacted portions of the police documents lifted.

Other allegations from witnesses following the 13-hour rampage on April 18 and 19, included that the gunman had various secret rooms and false walls located on his properties.

One witness told police that the gunman kept a “high powered rifle” in a “hidden compartment in the garage” according to documents.

“People talked about there being ‘secret hiding spots’ on his properties’ and ‘there were areas that contain a false wall,’” the documents say.

A third person told police “there is a secret room in the clinic in Dartmouth,” the documents say. Wortman, 51, had worked as a denturist and lived above the clinic.

There were also references to the shooter’s uncle contained in the previously redacted details released Monday evening.

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One witness told police the gunman “had an uncle who is a retired RCMP member and this uncle gave Gabriel parts of his uniform.”

The gunman’s common-law spouse told police that he had a uniform belonging to an uncle in the RCMP but it didn’t fit him, according to the document.

RCMP have said that the shooter had relatives who were retired from the RCMP, but that they had spoken with investigators and did not provide the uniform he used during the killings.

The new allegations about the gunman also come as hundreds of people gathered in Halifax to demand a public inquiry into the April mass shooting.

Protests from the public and outraged victims’ family members came after the revelation last week that the provincial and federal governments would only call an independent review, which some critics say lacks transparency and legal weight.