Cartoon-shaped fentanyl still a mystery as Sarnia dealer heads to prison for four years

It’s been nearly eight months since Sarnia police found large chunks of fentanyl pressed into cartoon-like molds during a drug raid and officials connected to the case still aren’t sure why the suspects did that.

“It’s not something that we’ve been seeing in Sarnia and it’s more perplexing as to why they were in that form at all,” federal prosecutor Brian Higgins said recently in a Sarnia courtroom.

Sarnia police warned residents last October after vice officers found the molds – greyish-black forms in teddy bear, house, pig and other shapes – during a roughly $74,000 raid of homes on Devine and Martin streets.

“Disguising fentanyl as something innocuous, such as mistaken cartoon characters, creates safety concerns if the fentanyl is for something less deadly or, if in the hands of children, it may be mistaken for candy,” police said in an Oct. 17 release.

Sarnia police held a news conference two days later to highlight the dangers of their discovery – and their bewilderment.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Det.-Sgt. Mike Howell said at the time. “This is a new development.”

That, to his knowledge, also includes other communities across Ontario, he added.

Four suspects, aged 36 to 65, were arrested during the Oct. 12 raid. The odd find was the focus in court recently as one of the suspects, Ian Jackson, 41, of Sarnia, pleaded guilty to two drug-trafficking charges and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Of the 31 grams of fentanyl police found in Jackson’s Devine Street bedroom, nearly 28 g was pressed into the centimeters-tall shapes. Several silicon molds shaped like cartoon characters were seized during the raid.

Higgins explained to the judge that though the fentanyl shapes could appear to be edibles, that wouldn’t be the intended use because, at about $750 apiece, they were too valuable – and likely too lethal.

“I’d just be speculating. . . (but) it seems more that it might have been either somebody being creative or somebody trying to hide fentanyl in something that looked like something else,” he said.

Police said last fall they didn’t know why the molds were used, but speculated it may have been an attempt to create a brand for marketing the drugs or to disguise them as something less dangerous.

“I don’t know how it was done. I don’t know why it was done. But it appears that it was powdered fentanyl where you could then break off chunks of it and crumble it up to use it,” Higgins continued.

Jackson shed no light on the reason or motive – or even if he was involved in the process, though the molds were found in his bed – as he declined a chance to address the court.

“That such a serious and lethal drug would be pressed into a mold that appears to look like candy is obviously very troubling and concerning,” Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski said during sentencing.

Defense lawyer Sarah Donohue didn’t touch on the cartoon characters, focusing instead on her client’s character and background. The former army reservist and concrete worker is an addict trafficker who’s been using drugs for the last 15 years.

The drug use is likely connected to abuse he suffered as a youth at the hands of a Catholic priest, she said.

“That priest was later arrested, tried and convicted,” Donohue said, without offering specifics about the priest or the case, which likely would be covered by a publication ban. “In terms of drug use, that would be the traumatic antecedent.”

Jackson wanted to plead guilty ever since he was arrested last fall – he intentionally didn’t seek bail – and the seven-plus-month wait was due to delays beyond his control, she said. “He is hopeful to move on with his life,” she said.

Jackson had nearly one year of time shaved off for pre-sentence custody credit.

He initially faced four counts of possessing a controlled substance for trafficking, police said at the time, but pleaded guilty only to trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine. The other charges were dropped.

The 31 g of fentanyl he had was worth almost $5,500 and the nearly 138 g of crystal meth was valued at about $7,000.

A second suspect arrested last fall will appear in Sarnia’s Superior Court of Justice later this week, while a third is due back in provincial court in mid-August.

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@ObserverTerry