Drug traffickers get lengthy sentences
Man, woman each get five years in prison after pleading guilty to numerous charges
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, April 28, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife woman and a man from Burnaby, B.C. have each been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty for their roles in a local drug ring.
The RCMP show off their haul of illicit drugs last year, including fentanyl and crack cocaine as well as money believed to be the proceeds of crime and weapons. A total of 28 people were charged in an investigation into drug trafficking that RCMP dubbed Project Green Manalishi. Two people caught up in that drug sweep have been sentenced to five years in jail after they pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges on Tuesday. - photo courtesy of RCMP |
Brittany Dube, 24, and Eddy Radeka, 54, were handed their punishment by NWT Supreme Court judge Andrew Mahar on Tuesday. They were both charged with conspiracy to traffic in illicit drugs on April 4, 2016 as part of an RCMP investigation dubbed Project Green Manalishi.
The investigation had begun in the spring of 2015 and culminated in the arrests of more than two dozen people, including Dube, her younger brother Todd Dube and Radeka. Police said the arrests came after they monitored an extremely busy 24-hour drug trafficking operation which utilized an extensive network of taxi cabs, street level drug traffickers and stash locations to distribute drugs.
Dube and Radeka were arrested and charged after RCMP listened in on their phone calls, according to their Vancouver-based lawyer, David Baker.
Dube was convicted of conspiracy to commit trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking of cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana.
Mahar made note of the fact that Dube had become addicted to painkillers when she was in her late teens, went to jail for drug trafficking, overcame the addiction while living away from Yellowknife but fell back into the problem when she returned to the city.
Baker told Yellowknifer after sentencing that there was no direct connection between Dube and Radeka.
"Mr. Radeka was a courier. He drove a vehicle from Vancouver to Yellowknife carrying drugs and as the result of a wiretap, police were aware that a transaction was going to happen," said Baker.
"So he was arrested and drugs were seized from his vehicle."
The RCMP stopped Radeka outside Fort Providence and seized 1,073 fentanyl pills, 691 grams of powder cocaine, 1,548 grams of crack cocaine; and six litres of liquid codeine. RCMP allege Todd Dube was the mastermind behind the drug ring and that it was him who arranged the shipment that Radeka was driving to Yellowknife.
Dube remains before the courts charged with several drug trafficking-related offences.
Mahar pointed out that Radeka had no previous criminal record and how the father of five had been an established musician but lost his family, job and capacity to work as a musician due to his drug addiction.
Mahar followed a joint recommendation from Baker and Crown prosecutor Annie Piche on the length of sentence for both offenders.
"Trafficking hard drugs, especially fentanyl, is part of the process that destroys people and communities," Mahar said.
"Both of these people are in the grips of addiction. Both tried to stop. They can look at this as punishment or look at it as an opportunity."
Piche said the lengthy prison sentences were appropriate in this case.
"Judges are taking seriously any case that involves trafficking of hard drugs. Hundreds of people have died from fentanyl overdoses in the past few years," Piche said.
"Hard drugs, and more specifically fentanyl, are killing people."
The painkiller is about 100 times more powerful than morphine and creates a high similar to heroin. Even small amounts of fentanyl can prove deadly.
Both Dube and Radeka have been in custody since their arrests.
Taking into account their pre-court custody, they will each have about three and a half years left to serve. It is not yet clear where they will serve their sentences.
