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Showing no mercy

Drug suspect goes to Supreme Court

Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 28/01) - A 22-year-old Yellowknife man arrested by RCMP during Operation Guiness will spend more than four years in prison.

Jason Pound, already serving a nine-month sentence for trafficking marijuana, was sentenced in Supreme Court last week to three and a half years for robbery and trafficking cocaine. He pleaded guilty on all three charges.

The Crown's case against Pound was virtually seamless; the evidence against him almost entirely based on recorded conversations during drug transactions with an undercover civilian police agent.

The accused stood before Justice J.E. Richard on Feb. 22.

He faced two counts of trafficking cocaine and one count of robbery.

The robbery charge dated back to June 1999. During a conversation with the undercover police agent at The Office restaurant on Aug. 29, 2000, Pound acknowledged both having planned and participated in the theft of eight pounds of marijuana from an individual at the honeybucket dump near the Yellowknife airport.

The agent was equipped with a recording device during the conversation.

On the day in question Pound talked the victim into meeting him at the dump, supposedly to purchase the marijuana.

After the two men arrived a second vehicle sped up and two masked men jumped out and rushed towards them. At least one man was armed with a shot gun and pistol grip.

Pound fled from the scene and was pursued by one of the masked men. He was caught and tied up with duct tape.

The second masked man threatened the victim, who had crawled under a car, demanding that he hand over the marijuana or face serious bodily harm or death.

After a shot was fired into the air the victim came out from underneath the car, was kicked in the face, gave up the marijuana and was also tied up with duct tape.

Richard sentenced Pound to 15 months on each of the two trafficking charges and 12 months for the robbery. Combined with the nine month sentence handed down by Judge Brian Bruser on Feb. 13, Pound will serve four years and three months in prison.