It took almost 1.5 years, but two people arrested by Sarnia police amid an alleged $93,000 drug bust in a car have been cleared of all charges, leaving just one woman facing a single trafficking charge.
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Police said on Aug. 26, 2022 officers stopped a vehicle for a Highway Traffic Act violation around 4 am and discovered one of the occupants was wanted on an outstanding warrant. The person was arrested and searched and police allegedly found methamphetamine, fentanyl and cash, then found more after searching the vehicle, police said at the time.
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In total, officers allegedly seized more than 157 grams of street-ready fentanyl worth more than $31,000, over 21 grams of pure fentanyl valued at $50,000, nearly 76 grams of methamphetamine worth about $3,500, and just shy of $8,000 in cash, police said.
Nicole Joseph, 28, Amber-Lynn White, 27, and Curtis Brown, 29, were all charged with two counts of drug possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime worth more than $5,000, police said. Joseph and White were held in custody pending bail hearings while Brown, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant, was taken to hospital for medical reasons, police said.
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The case recently had a preliminary hearing and was committed to trial in the Superior Court of Justice. But during his first appearance there, federal prosecutor Brian Higgins asked Superior Court Justice Russell Raikes to drop all of the charges against Brown and Joseph.
He also asked for two of the three charges against White to be withdrawn, leaving just a single count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. That charge will be moved back to provincial court, where White is expected to be sentenced later this year in a separate trafficking case involving $13,000 in fentanyl and meth.
The sentencing has taken a while as White has been at the Thunder Woman Healing Lodge in Toronto. It’s a community-driven initiative aimed at breaking the cycle of the over-representation of Indigenous women in Canada’s prisons, according to its website.
Both of White’s cases will be addressed later this month.
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