A B.C. man arrested in a high-risk drug raid in Yellowknife over three years ago was handed a 26-month sentence in NWT Supreme Court Thursday.
Hassen Abdul Kerim Mohamed, 50, was convicted in September of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possessing marijuana.
In April 2015, members of Yellowknife RCMP’s emergency response team raided a Finlayson Drive townhouse using a battering ram and a grenade-like diversion device. Inside, they found Mohamed – and heaps of fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana.
Mounties arrested Mohamed as he exited a bathroom. A cocaine-filled baggie was found between his legs.
William Castro, the homeowner and primary target of the drug raid, leaped through a second-floor window in a bid to evade police. Castro is currently serving a six-year prison sentence for selling cocaine, fentanyl and marijuana.
The raid netted 60 grams of cocaine, 19 grams of crack cocaine, 536 grams of marijuana and 90 fentanyl tablets.
Mohamed pleaded not guilty after being charged with possessing cocaine and fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking.
During trial in August, Mohamed’s lawyer, Jennifer Cunningham, characterized her client as a “found in,” an unwitting house guest at Castro’s residence who had little to no knowledge of his roommate’s sophisticated drug enterprise.
Prosecutor Duane Praught, on the other hand, said Mohamed was much more involved in Castro’s operation, and that he ran drugs to and from the townhouse as a street-level dealer. In September, Justice Shannon Smallwood rejected Cunningham’s version of events and convicted Mohamed of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. But Smallwood wasn’t satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mohamed possessed the fentanyl found in the house for the purpose of trafficking. He was acquitted of that charge.
Praught called for a three-year sentence. He said Mohamed was involved in the trafficking of cocaine to make money.
“Mr. Mohamed came to the North to sell drugs,” he said in Supreme Court on Wednesday, noting the prevalence of out-of-town dealers setting up shop in the North’s profitable market.
Cunningham, on the other hand, said Mohamed was in “the throws of addiction” at the time of his arrest, and that he was seriously addicted to opiates and other drugs, leaving him homeless at times.
Mohamed completed a 21-month residential treatment program following his arrest.
Calling for a nine-month sentence followed by probation, Cunningham asked Smallwood to consider the “exceptional” nature of the case, and cited recent NWT cases where addiction-addled traffickers were handed sentences in the range of seven to 10 months.
In handing down her decision on Thursday, Smallwood characterized Mohamed as a “relatively recent” house guest at Castro's home at the time of his arrest but that he was involved in the operation to an extent – he had knowledge and control of the cocaine found at in the home's bathroom and living room.
Smallwood considered Mohamed's addictions issues and his efforts to rehabilitate himself but said a stronger sentence than the one proposed by the defence was needed to send “strong condemnation” to individuals selling and trafficking drugs in the North. She said the territory's lucrative market is attractive to would-be dealers who appear to not have received the message from the courts that setting up shop in the NWT won't be tolerated.
“Maybe there's too much money and too much greed out there,” she said.
With credit for remand custody, Mohamed has 23.5 months left to serve.