SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A man pleaded guilty Tuesday to trafficking cocaine in connection with a drug operation at the Yellowknife airport in December 2008.

Robert Howie, 59, now awaits sentencing.

He was charged with trafficking cocaine, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime. The latter two charges will be stayed until sentencing on May 13.

Crown prosecutor Glen Boyd said he wouldn't disclose the length of the jail term he would request for Howie, but did say trafficking cocaine carries a hefty sentence.

"Generally speaking these types of offences attract a penitentiary term of at least two years," he said Thursday.

Until Tuesday morning, Boyd said Howie was not jailed, but after pleading guilty to the trafficking charges, he was put behind bars.

Howie was previously in jail for breaking the terms of his probation and another drug charge in August last year, according to Boyd, but both charges were stayed and he was released from jail in November.

Howie and Brad Baker were charged with trafficking cocaine after police received an anonymous tip drugs were stashed at the airport restaurant, then known as the Navigator restaurant in 2008.

Police discovered 1,016 grams of cocaine in a plastic bag hidden above ceiling tiles in a hallway in the airport's basement and replaced the drugs with a decoy and set up a surveillance camera, which eventually caught Baker retrieving the drugs using a ladder.

At the time, Baker owned and operated the Navigator restaurant. He stored the drugs in exchange for $5,000, which he never received. Baker didn't purchase or attempt to sell the cocaine.

Baker was given two-and-a-half years in a federal penitentiary last November for possession for the purpose trafficking cocaine.