Yellowknife (Mar 07/03) - Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler has sentenced Long Huynh to 30 months in a federal penitentiary for trafficking cocaine and threatening to kill an undercover police officer.

On April 3, undercover officer Lloyd MacDougall approached Long Huynh in the Centre Square Mall and asked him to discuss "business" over coffee. The two men had been introduced earlier by an informant who served time with Huynh several years ago.

MacDougall told Huynh he owned a legitimate business delivering groceries to camps near Fort McMurray Alta., but also supplied cocaine to the camps. He told Huynh he wanted to set up the same operation in Yellowknife and needed 10 to 20 grams of cocaine once or twice a week.

Huynh asked to meet MacDougall later to determine if he was "true" by getting him to smoke crack cocaine. Huynh said the only thing standing between MacDougall and as much cocaine as he wanted was a "line."

After he proved himself, said Huynh, they could discuss weights and prices. MacDougall planned to use a simulation technique for snorting the coke, and so he told Huynh he would snort, but not smoke the drug.

The officer testified the two men went to a Yellowknife residence and Huynh tossed him some cocaine, saying "knock yourself out."

MacDougall simulated smoking the drug, but when Huynh asked him to snort another line, he refused. Huynh became suspicious and said if he ended up in jail because of it, MacDougall better leave town, dig a hole and hide because he would find him and kill him. Police arrested Huynh, who has previous trafficking and spousal assault convictions, several weeks later.

On Tuesday, a jury found Huynh guilty of uttering a death threat. He entered a last-minute guilty plea on the trafficking charge.

However, Huynh only admitted to setting up the test, and claimed he was only trying to help MacDougall by offering to introduce him to friends in the drug trade. Huynh denied he sells cocaine.

He only set up the "test" after because he saw a similar incident on the television program "Above the Law."

Crown prosecutor Caroline Carrasco asked for a three year sentence.

Schuler said the possibility that Huynh could be rehabilitated is not to be ignored. But she said the sentence must deter Huynh and others, and reflect society's condemnation of the crime. Schuler pointed out the maximum sentence for trafficking cocaine is life imprisonment.

Huynh will appear in court in May on charges with assault with a weapon and mischief from an unrelated incident May 1, 2002.