Sarnia fentanyl dealer gets seven years in prison

The federal prosecutor and Richard Meloche’s lawyer agreed he would likely have to serve three years in prison after being caught by Sarnia police with large amounts of cocaine and crystal meth twice in two months.

But with behind-the-scenes negotiations still underway – and while he was out on bail – Meloche, 34, was caught selling those drugs again. This time, though, he also had nearly 34 grams of fentanyl, an often deadly drug that’s wreaked havoc in Sarnia-Lambton and across Southwestern Ontario.

That meant asking the judge to tackle on another five years.

Federal prosecutor Brian Higgins agreed to recommend cutting off one year via a Canadian criminal sentencing principle called totality, but when the dust settled, he wanted Meloche in prison for seven years.

Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski said the final figure Higgins and defense lawyer Raymond Boggs came up with was appropriate because of the fentanyl.

“It also recognizes that certainly Sarnia – but it could be said of Canada – is in the midst of a serious opioid crisis that all too often results in users’ overdoses and death,” she said.

Higgins cited forensic toxicologist Karen Woodall, who has said fentanyl is 20 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, and used other cases across the country to detail how deadly the drug is.

“It’s very real. It’s very substantial. It exists in our community – not just in the abstract, but in actual people who have actually died of overdoses,” he said.

The Sarnia police vice unit first started investigating Meloche in April 2021 amid tips from confidential informants he was selling cocaine from the basement of an Exmouth Street home. With a search warrant in hand, they arrested him on April 28, 2021, and found more than 101 grams of crystal meth, more than 93 g of cocaine, two hydromorphone pills, a set of silver brass knuckles and a folding knife.

Along with nearly $2,000 in cash, the total haul was worth more than $23,000.

Meloche was released later that spring on bail. But the banned driver – he wasn’t even allowed to be in the driver’s seat of a car per a court order – was pulled over while driving a Hummer on Murphy Road on June 22, 2021.

Amid this arrest, police found more than 28 grams of cocaine, nearly 9 g of crystal meth and more than $2,000. The total value was pegged at about $4,200.

Meloche was released on bail again in late October 2021. But on Nov. 19, 2022, the Sarnia police vice unit and emergency response team searched his Christina Street South home.

Officers found nearly 34 grams of blue and light green fentanyl, nearly 26 g of cocaine and almost 12 g of crystal meth, together worth more than $9,500.

Meloche pleaded guilty in late February to a slew of charges, including trafficking all three drugs, and was sentenced last week after the court got a pre-sentence report. Boggs said his client’s criminal record goes back about two decades, but noted these were his first trafficking convictions.

Meloche does have a severe addiction, though, and comes from a family with a generational drug problem, Boggs noted.

“He didn’t start off with much of a chance in life,” he said.

The seven-year sentence, while beneficial for the community, may help him in his addiction battle, Boggs added.

“He wants to turn the corner,” he said.

Meloche, who declined to address the court via Zoom from the Sarnia Jail, has a little more than six years left to serve after obtaining credit for pre-sentence custody.

Other charges laid against him and all charges laid against a co-accused in the November 2022 incident were dropped.

At least three other Sarnia fentanyl traffickers have drawn seven-year sentences in recent years: a dealer who broke into the wrong unit; a woman caught in a $125,000 drug raid; et un fentanyl and cocaine dealer.

A young man from Hamilton, caught with a record amount of the drug in the border city, got nine years.

[email protected]

@ObserverTerry