Sask. woman arrested in drug bust denied bail

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This article was published 29/12/2023 (1006 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Saskatchewan woman facing drug-trafficking charges — after she was allegedly found in a Brandon apartment where nearly $100,000 of cocaine was also found — will remain behind bars after a judge decided that her likelihood to re-offend and her risk to the public were too great.

Della Nickel, 49, is facing multiple drug-trafficking charges alongside a co-accused after a drug bust by Brandon police in March. After returning to custody earlier this month after her arrest by Rivers Police Service, Nickel made an unsuccessful bid for bail on Thursday. The Crown opposed her release, arguing that she would re-offend if released from jail.

Crown attorney for the federal government, Eric Penner, read the evidence for the charges in court. The charges against Nickel have not been proven in court and she remains innocent until proven guilty.

In February, Brandon police began an investigation into a man who was suspected to be trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl.

The investigation culminated in a drug bust at a Princess Avenue apartment in early March. When police entered the apartment, they found a woman sitting in a bedroom at a table with a large amount of meth, numerous individually packaged bags of meth, digital scales, packaging material, and a score sheet.

In the laundry room of the apartment, police found 968 grams of cocaine, which had an estimated street value of about $96,800. A total of about 138 grams of meth was also found in the apartment, with an estimated street value of $13,800. The quantity of meth was enough for over 1,000 “points” (or 0.1 gram), the dose in which meth is typically sold.

Police also found more than $2,000 in cash in the same room as the woman. Weapons were also found inside the apartment.

The woman was arrested and later released on court-ordered conditions.

On Dec. 15, the woman again came into contact with police — this time Rivers Police Service.

On that day, officers conducted a traffic stop with a vehicle carrying two people. A records search indicated that the woman who was in the passenger seat of the vehicle was on court-ordered conditions that permitted police to conduct searches. After opening the passenger compartment in the vehicle where the woman was sitting, police found six baggies of crystal meth, totalling about 88 grams, which has a street value of about $8,820 and equates to about 882 doses of the drug.

Penner argued that the woman be kept behind bars, adding that she had already been released on strict release-order conditions when she was allegedly found in a vehicle with more drugs.

“This is an accused who is feeding addictions and the criminal activity that results from methamphetamine and cocaine use that poses not only a danger to the accused but the community, the consumers who are using these substances,” the Crown attorney said.

Nickel’s defence lawyer, Jonathan Richert, shared his client’s version of events. He told the court that his client said she was visiting Brandon back in March, as she was a friend of the co-accused. She had her things at the apartment only temporarily and said she did not live at that residence. Richert said Nickel sells beads and the baggies and scales that she was found with were for her bead-selling business and not drugs.

Regarding the December incident, the defence lawyer said there were likely issues with the traffic stop in the first place and that the bag in which the drugs were found in the vehicle didn’t belong to his client.

Richert reminded the court that his client is presumed innocent until proven guilty and presented a bail plan that he described as a step up from his client’s previous release conditions. The bail plan would have the woman living with another woman at an apartment in Brandon and she would abide by a house-arrest curfew.

Associate chief Judge Donovan Dvorak spoke about seeing the impact of meth use on individuals and communities over the course of his 30 years working in the criminal justice system.

“When somebody’s trading in cocaine and trading in meth, what they’re doing is trading serious harm and misery for profit,” Dvorak said. “And it’s a very serious matter.”

The judge noted the quantity of drugs and said it is common for people facing drug-trafficking charges to return to trafficking once released, especially after a loss of drugs due to police seizure. He said the woman being allegedly found in the vehicle with evidence of drug trafficking gave him concerns about her re-offending.

Ultimately, Dvorak said the bail plan was not strong enough to alleviate his concerns that the woman would re-offend and denied her release.

Nickel’s matters will next appear in federal court in Brandon on Jan. 11.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @geena_mortfield