Man gets 18 months for selling drugs
23-year-old says he was recruited by '856' gang
and had only been dealing for three weeks when he was caught
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man who says he was recruited by the notorious '856' gang was sentenced to 18 months in jail Friday after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges.
Tanner Short, 23, had originally pleaded guilty in territorial court of one count of trafficking cocaine, two counts of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and one count of possession of the proceeds of crime on Jan. 20.
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Bond told the court that Short was arrested on Aug. 12 after police had executed a search warrant at a residence on Fairchild Avenue in Northland Trailer Park. She said the raid was part of the RCMP's Project Gloom, one of two operations targeting "dial-a-dope" cocaine sales operations in the city. Bond said almost $6,000 was recovered from the residence, including 22 bills that had been marked by police before using them to buy crack cocaine from Short.
Bond said Short had sold a gram of crack to an undercover operative in the bathroom of a bar on Aug. 7. Bond told the court that the operative was able to make three other crack cocaine purchases from Short over the next three days. One of them was a five-gram purchase for $440, Bond told the court. She said when Short was arrested at the home on Fairchild Avenue he admitted to police that he had been selling drugs for the 856 gang for three weeks.
Bond called for a sentence of two years less a day.
"That is in order to send a message to Short and others like him that illegal drug sales, particularly crack cocaine, will not be tolerated in the NWT," Bond said.
Short was also connected to a raid at the same time at a unit in the Frobisher House apartment building downtown. His lawyer Paul Falvo told the court that Short only had limited connections to the operation at that apartment.
He called for a 12-month sentence, saying that separating Short from his family and other supportive people will not help. Short is no longer associating with the crowd that got him into this trouble in the first place, Falvo said. He asked for 33 days credit for the time Short spend in pre-trial custody. He was jailed on Aug. 12 and released on bail Sept. 2.
Judge Christine Gagnon asked Short if he had anything to say before sentencing. Short, dressed in a beige sweater and black dress pants, apologized.
"I want this to be done. There will be no more mistakes. I won't be going
back to it," Short said.
In sentencing Short, Gagnon noted that he had one prior conviction on his record that was unrelated to his current offences. She pointed out that Short was not a member of the 856 gang but rather had been recruited by them.
"It was not Mr. Short's idea to bring this (cocaine) business to Yellowknife," she said.
He was vulnerable to being recruited, Gagnon said.
"This court has seen many young men lured into this activity," Gagnon said. "I don't know how or why they get involved."
She has seen young men with no criminal record get involved and thinks that the recruiters from the gangs convince them that not much will happen to them if they get caught.
Gagnon said she also believes the recruits are convinced that the buyers of crack do so of their own free will and the only harm done is to themselves. The judge said she wanted to send a message to possible future recruits by her sentence that these drug gangs are highly structured organizations and there are consequences to getting involved with them.
"It is not attractive or risk-free," she said.
Gagnon also ordered Short to provide a sample of his DNA and banned him from owning or possessing a firearm for 10 years after his release from jail.
