He was placed on a one-way flight to face justice. But one of the first criminals to ride British Columbia's Con Air program is back in town.

By returning to Vancouver, Stephen King appears to be making a mockery of Con Air, a program pitched by Vancouver Police Chief Cons. Jim Chu, and funded by taxpayers dollars.

Con Air has been touted by police and politicians as an effective crime fighting tool because it allows police officers to  load criminals onto planes and send them back to their home province to face justice.

Even B.C.'s Solicitor General kicked in $40,000 worth of tax money to fund the concept, which has been dubbed Con Air.

But as CTV has discovered, there is nothing to stop the criminals from coming back.

King was one of those Con Air passengers.

Police allege King was a drug dealer in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and the leader of a gang called the "game tight soldiers."

He was flown back to Ontario in April. But four months later, King is back and living in Vancouver.

In an interview with CTV, King denied that he was a gang member or gang leader, He also explained why he decided to return

"I have family here, I've been here off and on here for 15 years, and this is my home,'' he said.

After he was deported by the Vancouver Police Department in April, King served three months in an Ontario jail for a break and enter and welfare fraud charges.

"Why not bring the charge here, you know, I already tried. If taxpayers are pissed about gas and stuff, they should be pissed off. These guys are wasting $20,000  to send a guy back for breaking a window eight years ago,'' King said.

He says he tried to transfer the case to B.C. which would have saved thousands of dollars. But didn't get the backing of Crown Counsel.

 "Someone like myself, I could have sent a $500 cheque to pay for the window. Instead they wanted to make their gang unit look big and mean, so they sent me back," King said.

And it turns out, when the Vancouver Police Department put King on a plane, he was facing drug charges in Penticton, B.C.

"I can confirm Mr. King was prepared to go to trial on those charges,'' his lawyer said in an e-mail to CTV.

"He was not able to appear on his trial date as he had been "rendered" through the actions of the VPD, consequently the crown was forced to stay the charge against Mr. King.''

In other words, the cocaine conspiracy charge was dropped because of Con Air.

On Friday, an officer from the Vancouver Police Department is expected answer questions from CTV about whether he thinks shipping King to Ontario was good value.

With a report by CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington.