A Brantford drug dealer who hid his stashes in a refrigerated fake Yeti can found that trafficking in fentanyl was a “whole new ballgame,” according to a Brantford judge.
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Geoff Adam Wardle, 45, became the target of a police investigation on New Year’s Day this year and, on Jan. 2, police raided his Colborne Street motel room.
Officers found fentanyl, MDMA, and methamphetamine in the can, along with drug packaging material, four digital scales, a debt list and almost $2,400 in cash.
Wardle was arrested and charged, along with a youth who was in the motel room at the time.
“Your record doesn’t help you sir,” said Justice Ronald Minard, referencing Wardle’s two decades of low-level criminal history.
“Dealing fentanyl is a whole new ballgame. The Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal have made it clear: dealing with fentanyl calls for penitentiary sentences. It’s a life-destroying, soul-destroying drug that has wrecked havoc in Ontario and across the country for years now.”
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His defense lawyer, Ian McCuaig, said Wardle had become enmeshed in the drug subculture as a young man working in the oil fields of western Canada where there was lots of money.
“It was the ‘wild west’ and he discovered cocaine and has struggled with an addiction every since. Alcohol has also played a factor in his life.”
McCuaig said it was Wardle’s first conviction for trafficking and he had been largely selling drugs to support his own addiction.
The lawyers in the case proposed a three-and-a-half year sentence that would be an increase from any previous punishments and get him to prison where he might be rehabilitated through counseling and other resources.
“That’s the difference between Canada and other countries,” said McCuaig. “We never give up.”
The judge commended Wardle for owning up to the crimes and quickly pleading guilty.
“But the federal penitentiary is not a fun place.
“We’re told drugs are available there if you want them badly enough but, hopefully, that won’t be your story.”
Wardle was given credit for his almost 200 days in jail awaiting trial, ordered to submit a DNA sample and is restricted from having certain weapons for the rest of his life.
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