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Decide mentioned the seller, who provided different traffickers in Fort St. John, posed a public well being risk due to decreased entry to emergency look after overdoses and to habit remedy within the Northern Well being area
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A Fort St. John man who failed to point out up for his final day of trial on drug and gun fees — and reduce off his monitoring bracelet — has been sentenced to 12 years in jail, together with for failure to seem and breaching bail situations.
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Throughout a trial in B.C. Supreme Court docket in Vancouver in 2021, Dana Nazarek was convicted in his absence by a jury on six counts of drug possession for the aim of trafficking and unlawful possession of 4 weapons.
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But it surely took one other virtually two years for him to be sentenced in a case wherein the decide highlighted the actual risks of drug trafficking in distant communities.
Nazarek, 51, was granted bail, regardless of the opposition of prosecutors, three months earlier than his trial. He was ordered to reside at a Surrey habit remedy facility, put on the ankle monitor and go away the ability solely to attend court docket.
He attended the trial day by day from June 3, 2021, however, on June 29, he didn’t present up. The Crown prosecutor informed court docket Nazarek left the Surrey facility at 7:22 that morning and crossed into Richmond at 7:55 a.m.
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“By 7:59, the monitoring bracelet had been severed and faraway from his ankle.”
RCMP discovered discovered it 5 metres off Freeway 99 in Richmond “in a location in line with it having been thrown from a shifting automobile.”
It wasn’t till 13 months later, on Aug. 5, 2022, that he was arrested by two Vancouver cops who noticed “what seemed to be a battle between a male and a feminine in a Walmart parking zone” in Vancouver.
Nazarek gave them a false identify and ID, however he additionally had a financial institution card in his actual identify.
In March, he pleaded responsible to failure to seem and breaking bail situations.
The drug and gun fees date again to 2018, when RCMP with a search warrant arrested Nazarek in his Fort St. John dwelling. Court docket heard the medication included 490 grams of crack and powder cocaine in addition to methamphetamine, fentanyl, carfentanil combined with fentanyl, heroin combined with fentanyl, and heroin combined with fentanyl and carfentanil, price in complete between $43,000 and $83,000.
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Police additionally seized digital scales, drug rating sheets, marked baggies and $34,000 in money.
Court docket heard Nazerek was the “working thoughts” behind a “comparatively small-scale wholesale drug trafficking” operation, wherein he bought medication to different traffickers and to not customers.
When arrested, Nazarek had been out on bail awaiting sentencing for the same conviction from a 2017 trial, associated to 2013 fees.
In sentencing, Justice Andrew Mayer famous that within the Northern Well being Authority, the place Fort St. John is positioned, overdoses have been the second highest of any B.C. well being area, at 34 deaths per 100,000 individuals.
Crown informed court docket “the affect of drug trafficking is especially acute in smaller communities” due to much less entry to habit remedy centres and emergency look after overdoses and cited a 2009 judgment that younger males with high-paying jobs in B.C.’s oil patch are significantly susceptible to cocaine use.
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Mayer mentioned the rules of denunciation and deterrence are “paramount in sentencing people for trafficking in fentanyl and carfentanil.”
He acknowledged that Nazarek suffered from habit points and a historical past of childhood abuse and that he was making efforts to handle them however mentioned these efforts have been “considerably mitigated by the choice to abscond” and stay at massive for greater than a yr.
He additionally famous Nazarek was motivated by revenue and the “poisonous mixture” of medication and weapons posed a public security risk.
Crown had requested for a 15- to 16-year and defence recommended six years. Nazarek acquired credit score for nearly two years for time served, leaving him with 10 years to serve.
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