A B.C. man has been acquitted of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Judge Karen Ruddy found that it had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused, Jason McMillan, was in possession of the drug at the time or place specified in the charge.

It was alleged that “on or about August 30, 2013, at or near Whitehorse,” the 42-year-old McMillan possessed cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Two of McMillan’s fingerprints were found on a packaged kilogram of cocaine picked up from a home in Porter Creek by a drug dealer turned police agent on Aug. 30, 2013.

One fingerprint was on a piece of tape inside heated-sealed packaging, and a second was found on a plastic bag the brick of cocaine had been placed inside.

“I am of the view that this case can be disposed of on the narrow basis of whether the Crown has proven the time and location of the offence ... beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ruddy wrote in her decision, released last Friday.

These are two “essential elements,” the judge added.

At McMillan’s trial last month, Staff Sgt. Major Doug Spencer, an RCMP fingerprints analyst, testified that there is no way to tell how long fingerprints have been on a surface.

He said the print on the tape would have been placed there before the cocaine was heat-sealed, given its placement.

McMillan was one of several men arrested in Project Monolith, a large-scale investigation into cocaine trafficking between British Columbia and the Yukon in 2013.

Crown prosecutor Eric Marcoux argued McMillan packaged the cocaine in the Lower Mainland, then drove it to Whitehorse.

But McMillan’s lawyer, Jeremy Guild, said the location of the fingerprints is consistent with the innocent handling of a roll of tape and a plastic bag.

Even if the prints are counted as evidence that McMillan had possessed the cocaine, Guild took issue with the date and location set out in the charge.

The positioning of the print on the tape is more consistent with the cocaine being handled in B.C. rather than Whitehorse, he argued.

Heat-sealed packaging is typically applied to drugs to prevent detection, and it’s logical that this would be applied in the Lower Mainland before the cocaine was transported to the Yukon, Guild said.

“I am not satisfied that there is any evidence upon which to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. McMillan had ever been in the Yukon prior to these proceedings,” Ruddy concluded.

There is no evidence McMillan was in Whitehorse at any time close to Aug. 30, or that anyone saw him in the territory around that time, she said.

“I also find that the location of the accused’s fingerprints is more consistent with his having been in contact with the brick of cocaine in B.C. than in Whitehorse,” Ruddy wrote.

Marcoux had posited that McMillan was a delivery driver in the drug operation and had transported cocaine to Whitehorse before.

The police agent testified at the trial that he didn’t really know McMillan, but he’d met him once before a few weeks prior to the Aug. 30 drug pick-up.

This man’s identity is protected by a publication ban as he’s now in the Witness Protection Program.

Marcoux said this meeting between the two men at the Yukon Inn coincided with a prior cocaine shipment to Whitehorse, which points to McMillan’s involvement as a delivery driver.

Given this evidence, the only reasonable inference is that the accused wrapped the package in B.C. and transported it north, Marcoux said.

But Ruddy found the police agent’s testimony about the meeting was vague – he couldn’t say exactly when it happened nor were any details provided about what the circumstances were.

“(The agent) was not aware of any involvement by the accused in the transaction,” she noted.