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HAY RIVER - A young woman in Hay River has been sent to jail for cocaine trafficking, despite the fact she didn't make any money from the transaction.

Kendrah Peterson, 20, was sentenced to six months imprisonment followed by a year's probation for her part in facilitating a drug deal.

Peterson, who pleaded guilty to the offence, was sentenced by Justice Louise Charbonneau at a sitting of the NWT Supreme Court in Hay River on Nov. 25.

The drug transaction took place on June 10, 2007.

The court was told that two undercover RCMP officers went to Peterson's residence looking for two targets in an investigation on the evening of June 9, 2007.

Peterson was not a target of the investigation, part of the territorial-wide Operation Gargoyle.

A female undercover officer asked for a man, but was told by Peterson that he was no longer living there.

The officer told Peterson she wanted to get "hooked up" with some "white," and Peterson said a friend of hers would be at the residence later that night and could help.

The officer gave a cell phone number to Peterson, who called at about 2 a.m. on June 10.

The two officers returned to the residence, where one was sold a gram of cocaine and the other a half-gram of cocaine.

The man who actually sold the cocaine - Richard Phillip DeLeeuw - pleaded guilty to trafficking and was sentenced on Jan. 10 to a year in jail.

Peterson, who was 19 at the time of the offence, had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge of trafficking, but later changed her plea to guilty.

In passing sentence, Justice Charbonneau said Peterson had viewed herself as a victim of circumstances.

However, the judge said Peterson had slowly come to the conclusion she was guilty for her role in the transaction. "And that she has to take responsibility for it."

Charbonneau said a person can be guilty of trafficking without touching a drug or receiving money.

"Facilitating these types of transactions is a crime," she said, adding Peterson stuck the label of a drug trafficker on herself by allowing her residence to be used for it.

The judge said everyone in the chain of drug trafficking shares part of the responsibility for an activity that destroys people's lives.

Charbonneau added, if someone comes to a home looking for drugs, the average person will hopefully say, 'Get out of my house.'

The judge said Peterson has to face the consequences of her conduct.

"The best thing you can do is take this as a hard lesson learned," she told Peterson.

As part of the probation, the judge ordered Peterson to take counselling as directed by a parole officer and to not knowingly associate with anyone in the drug trade.