Cocaine stash house occupant found guilty
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A man who claimed he had no idea his apartment was being used as a “stash house” for a drug trafficking group was convicted of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking on Monday after standing trial in June.
“There’s no plausible theory, other than the accused’s knowledge of the presence of cocaine in the apartment and the accused exercised some measure of control over it,” Justice Scott Abel said in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench.
Jerimiah Dambo was one of the 11 people arrested in Brandon Police Service’s 18-month-long operation called Project Brazen, in which they seized roughly three kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $300,000.
While police found no evidence that Dambo trafficked drugs, his apartment on Willowdale Crescent was the alleged stash house.
BPS started the investigation in 2020, targeting a man who they believed was using several runners and couriers under him to distribute cocaine in the city as well as using stash locations, Abel said before delivering his decision.
Police believed a man, who was referred to as “second-in-command,” was responsible for packaging cocaine and resupplying runners, Abel said.
BPS set up surveillance outside of Dambo’s apartment, which showed the man using his own key to enter on several occasions and at times staying for long durations.
During the investigation, BPS made several covert entries to the apartment where they found various amounts of cocaine in a closet and drug paraphernalia in several locations, including the living room.
“The accused testified and denied having any knowledge of the cocaine,” Abel said.
He said the Crown needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dambo was in possession of the cocaine and that he had both control and knowledge of the possession being for the purpose of trafficking.
The lawyers agreed that due to quantity of cocaine, it was being trafficked, but the issue during trial was whether Dambo knew it was there.
Abel came to the conclusion that the only plausible theory was that Dambo knew about the cocaine, and since he was the sole occupant of his apartment, he had control of what and who were in the apartment.
Dambo’s matter will appear in court later this month to discuss the ordering of a pre-sentence report.
» sanderson@brandonsun.com