Charges against a 21-year-old Hamilton man linked to the largest single seizure of fentanyl ever recorded in Sarnia have been dropped after he was recently killed in a shooting in the Niagara area.
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The Sarnia police vice unit found just shy of 600 grams of the highly addictive and often deadly drug worth about $118,000 while raiding a Rayburne Avenue home in October 2021. “This seizure of fentanyl has been the service’s largest seizure on record,” police said at the time.
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Officers also found about 140 grams of cocaine with a street value estimated at more than $15,000. Along with nearly $15,000 in cash, the total haul was worth almost $150,000.
Jalen Saravia, 20, and Jordan Chu, 18, both originally from the Hamilton area, were both facing drug charges, police said at the time. Saravia pleaded guilty in June 2022 to possession of fentanyl and cocaine, both for the purpose of trafficking, and was sentenced a couple of months later to nine years in prison.
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The charges against Chu, who got bail in January 2022, have been adjourned more than 30 times in various Sarnia courtrooms since they were first laid more than two years ago. A preliminary hearing was set for next August.
But the charges were unexpectedly brought up in court again Thursday as federal prosecutor Brian Higgins asked a judge to drop them.
“What’s happened is Mr. Chu was the victim of a homicide and is deceased, so the charges are going to be withdrawn,” he explained to Justice Paul Kowalyshyn.
“Withdrawn, for obvious reasons, at the request of the Crown,” the judge said.
Chu, 21, died Nov. 27, according to his obituary. Chu’s Toronto-based lawyer, Peter Zaduk, said Friday via email he didn’t have much more information about the homicide investigation, which took place in Grimsby.
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Niagara Regional police previously said their officers found a man suffering from life-threatening injuries while responding to a shooting around 5:30 pm Nov. 27. He was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Detectives with the Niagara Regional police homicide unit were investigating, they added.
Niagara Regional police were asked for an update on the Chu homicide investigation.
“This incident remains under investigation with no new information at this time,” replied Saturday via email.
In the meantime, Higgins also asked for the property seized on Chu during his arrest in Sarnia – $7,785 in cash and a black iPhone – to be returned to his estate via Zaduk.
During Saravia’s sentencing hearing in August 2022, Justice Deborah Austin said the nearly decade-long sentence suggested by her lawyer, Jaime Stephenson, and Higgins was appropriate as the quantity of fentanyl was extraordinarily large and valuable.
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“And what that reflects is a great potential for harm to be distributed in the community, including the tragic repercussions of fentanyl – addiction, overdose, and even death,” she said.
Although he agreed at the time to suggest nine years, Higgins said it was on the low end due to the amount seized. He pointed out other smaller amounts of fentanyl found by police in Sarnia may have been more pure, including a new record established just one week earlier, but the 594 grams they discovered in October 2021 was the largest amount based on volume.
Along with being a record raid, Sarnia police pointed out they found blenders they said were being used to mix fentanyl with other substances.
“This is of extreme concern due to the fact that this attempt to produce dosages is not part of any sort of pharmaceutical process and thus there is potential for fatal dosages being created,” police said at the time.
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