A police informant central to a massive Sask. organized crime bust has died. Here's the inside story

Everyone was looking for Noel Harder.

In January 2015, a series of police raids across Western Canada known as Project Forseti had netted hundreds of guns and more than $8 million worth of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl. Most of the 20 arrested were members of the Hells Angels or Fallen Saints motorcycle clubs.

Harder had often been seen on social media wearing his Fallen Saints jacket, but he was the only senior club member not in custody. He had disappeared.

Was Harder a fugitive? Was he dead? Or was there another explanation?

I called every potential source — criminals and crime fighters — and they all said they had no idea. But someone obviously did.

A couple of weeks later, I was at my desk in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsroom when the phone rang.

"Hey, is this Jason?"

"Yes."

"It's Noel Harder. I hear you're looking for me."

Harder didn't tell me where he was, but he answered the one question on everyone's minds.

"I was the informant. I was an agent."

He said he had been working undercover for months, gathering evidence of drug deals, gun-running and connections to organized crime. I later learned police handlers spirited Harder and his family to Mexico the day before the raids.

His photos, video recordings and testimony were central to the convictions of nearly two dozen criminals.

But Harder's life, and the lives of his wife and two kids, were never the same.