The lead RCMP officer on a large Yukon drug investigation testified Tuesday at a trial of a man alleged to have possessed cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Cpl. Lindsay Ellis, a member of the Yukon RCMP’s Federal Investigations Unit, said the goal of Project Monolith was to “disrupt and dismantle a group of cocaine traffickers that had been supplying the Yukon Territory with kilogram levels of cocaine.”

She was called as a Crown witness to testify about the 2013 investigation that culminated in the arrests of several men.

At the time, the RCMP called Project Monolith “one of the most significant organized crime investigations in the territory to date.”

This week, Jason McMillan, 42, of Vernon, B.C., is on trial for one count of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Staff Sgt. Major Doug Spencer, an RCMP fingerprints analyst, testified McMillan’s prints were found on a package of cocaine picked up by a police informant at a home in Porter Creek.

The main players in this trafficking ring were residents of the Surrey, B.C., area who lived only part-time in Whitehorse, Ellis said. They would ship cocaine directly to northern British Columbia and Whitehorse.

“There was only a few trusted people in town at the time who could receive cocaine shipments,” Ellis said.

One of these people was the police agent, a man who had been working for the group as a dealer.

RCMP recruited him in April 2013.

Four months later, he signed a contract to provide them information in exchange for money and protection from criminal charges.

He testified in person on Monday, amid tight security at the courthouse. The man, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, is now in the Witness Protection Program.

He said he went through a long process to become an informant: meetings with RCMP, psychological testing and full disclosure of his lengthy criminal history.

Ellis said RCMP told him repeatedly he couldn’t participate in any further illegal activity as a police agent.

“That’s easier said than done,” she told the court.

Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Eric Marcoux, Ellis said the police agent received calls a few times ordering him to accept a cocaine shipment and dole it out it to the other dealers. He did.

“This wasn’t taken lightly by us,” Ellis said.

At one point, police arranged for the man to take an expenses-paid trip out of the country to give him distance from the group.

Unfortunately, the next shipment of cocaine came to Whitehorse earlier than the RCMP had expected, and the man was forced to take it.

Ellis said his safety was top priority for the police.

Had they immediately seized the cocaine, the whole investigation would’ve fallen apart, she said.

Police wouldn’t have had enough evidence for the main players to be prosecuted and the agent’s safety would have been jeopardized, she said.

The group had also made several comments to the man about violent incidents that occurred when other dealers had refused to accept shipments, Ellis said.

They implied it would be a “death sentence” for him if he did the same.

On Aug. 30, 2013, the informant and RCMP engaged in a “scenario.”

The dealer had received a text from his partner to pick up a kilogram of cocaine from a home in Porter Creek, said another witness, Const. Andrew Greer. He was the agent’s handler.

The man informed police, and they arranged for him to drive from an RCMP safe house in Whitehorse to pick it up.

Officers followed him to ensure he was safe and to check out the home, Ellis said.

One other man was at the house at the time, and indicated the kilogram could be found in a stove drawer, the police agent testified.

He said this man was Kuntoniah Graham. Graham is scheduled to stand trial at the end of the month on two counts of drug trafficking.

The informant retrieved the brick of cocaine, then drove back to the safe house and turned it over to police.

The brick was wrapped in cellophane and packaging tape, inside a plastic bag placed inside a paper bag.

It was on the packaging that two of McMillan’s fingerprints were found.

Spencer testified that two prints belonging to Graham were also found on the packaging.

The police agent said he met McMillan once at the Yukon Inn about a month prior to him becoming an agent. He said he didn’t really know the man.

He also said he was one of the largest, if not the largest, drug dealer in Whitehorse at that time, making about $90,000 a month, and selling up to two kilograms of cocaine every 10 days.

McMillan’s lawyer, Jeremy Guild, is not calling any evidence.

The trial is expected to end today with closing arguments from Marcoux and Guild.