14 years in prison for drug courier

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This article was published 30/08/2023 (854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Toronto man who was stopped on the highway outside of Brandon and later convicted in what the Crown called Manitoba’s largest fentanyl bust was sentenced to 14 years behind bars on Monday.

In January 2023, Mandeep Deol, 43, was found guilty of possessing more than $1 million worth of fentanyl and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) for the purposes of trafficking. Deol’s cousin, who was with him in the van, was also charged, but found not guilty after the trial.

Sentencing submissions took place in May, and the Crown argued that Deol should be sentenced to 22 years in prison, while defence asked for 12 years.

A summary of the evidence at Deol’s trial was included in both Justice Elliott Leven’s trial, sentencing and voir dire decisions.

On July 28, 2020, Deol was driving a rented van heading eastbound on the Trans-Canada Highway when he was pulled over near Brandon.

Police stopped the van because it was speeding about 12 kilometres per hour over the speed limit. After pulling the van over, the officer noticed an open whisky bottle in the back seat of the van.

The officer searched the van for more open bottles of liquor, and finding none, told the driver that he could keep the whisky in the back of the van. The officer opened the van’s rear hatch and noticed two bulging hockey bags.

Once the bags were searched, police found about 26 kilograms of fentanyl and 50 kilos of MDA.

In a voir dire — a separate hearing within a trial — during the trial, defence argued that when the officer opened the rear hatch of the van, he violated Deol’s Section 8 charter right against unreasonable search or seizure, and therefore the seized drugs should not be admissible as evidence.

Defence argued that the officer’s explanation for wanting to put the whisky in the truck was a ruse to open the hatch and illegally search the van. The Crown argued that the officer honestly wanted to let Deol keep the whisky.

Ultimately, the judge decided that it was unlawful for the police officer to open the hatch without permission from the driver nor asking him whether he would prefer to put the whisky in the trunk or pour it out. However, Leven decided that the seized drugs were admissible.

“The impact on interests protected by s.8 [of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms] was minor,” Leven said in his voir dire decision. “The dangers of fentanyl and MDA are serious, and the quantities of drugs were extremely large. Society has an overwhelming interest in having these alleged offences adjudicated on the merits.”

During sentencing submissions in May, Crown attorney Janna Hyman spoke about the deadly outcomes of fentanyl and the millions of dollars in profit that the drugs, on their way to Ontario, would garner. She said that the large quantities of drugs meant that the drug organization had a high level of trust in Deol.

Deol’s defence lawyer, Anthony Dawson, argued that his client was a “mere carrier” and at the lowest level of the large drug operation. He said that a 22-year sentence for Deol, who immigrated to Canada in 2008 and has no criminal record, was “oppressive and crushing.”

Deol, through a Punjabi interpreter, told the court that he has been concerned about his family while he has been in jail and wished he could go home to care for his young children and wife who live in Toronto.

Leven’s written decision, which was delivered in the Court of King’s Bench on Monday, sentenced Deol to 14 years in prison with credit for the three years behind bars he has already served while on remand waiting for his charges to work their way through the court system.

In his reasons for his decision, Leven noted the seriousness of fentanyl trafficking and the trend in recent years to sentence fentanyl cases more severely than other drugs like cocaine. The fact that Deol did not have a criminal record was a factor to his credit, the judge wrote.

Deol was also sentenced to a mandatory 10-year weapons prohibition.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

» X: @geena_mortfield