The Vancouver Police say sending Steve King back to Ontario was worth the money they spent. King, they say, was a drug dealer and the leader of a gang on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

When the Vancouver Police Department discovered King had outstanding charges in Ontario, he became a candidate for the Con Air program.

The program 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.

So in April, officers put him on a flight back to Ontario.

But King is once again living in Vancouver and that's where CTV found him after he had served three months in an Ontario jail. King didn't want to appear on camera.

He came out of his apartment wearing pajamas and saying he is suffering from listeriosis.

In an interview, King said the flight was a waste of money.

"You are going to waste people's money for a guy breaking a window eight years ago?" he said. "I missed my kids birthday and my birthday over something I did before they were even born,'' he said.

But Sgt. Ruben Sorge of the Vancouver Police Department's Con Air program disagreed.

"He's suggesting break and enter eight years ago isn't that serious. For that victim of the break and enter it is serious, otherwise their Crown would have said no to the charges,'' Sorge said.

King's lawyer, James Pennington, says his client was willing to plead guilty to the Ontario charges and serve his time here.

"But the Vancouver Police Department was determined, no no no, they wanted to fly him back to Ontario,'' said Pennington.

"Can you make any sense of this?" Pennington said. "Sure it's called the clean up the streets of Vancouver in time for 2010,'' he said.

Pennington has confirmed that King was facing a more serious drug charge right here in British Columbia, a charge that was dropped after the VPD flew him to Ontario.

When asked for comment, Sorge said: "Mr. King is welcome here as a law abiding citizen, we wish him all the best.''

The Con Air program has escorted 19 people out of the province. The program has been operating on a $40,000 grant from the British Columbia government.

But after nearly 20 flights, that money is almost gone.

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