Two men involved in a large and clandestine ecstasy lab near Kelowna have been sentenced to jail.
The pair was sentenced today after being arrested almost two years ago.
RCMP raided the lab in November of 2012.
It was situated in a remote area in the Christian Valley about 100 kilometres southeast of Kelowna.
Police seized more than three kilograms of MDMA or ecstasy and about 11 kilograms of unfinished product.
Sentenced are 26 year old William Charles Forrest of Kamloops and 34 year old Ryan Patrick Novy of Kelowna.
The Kelowna man has a previous criminal record for drug offences and was the main player in the ecstasy lab.
He was sentenced to three years in jail.
Forrest on the other hand was said to be a caretaker of the lab and with no prior record, he was handed a 2 year sentence.
Both crown and the defence agreed on the length of the sentence in a joint submission.
While the maximum sentence is 10 years, the judge agreed with the lighter jail sentences taking into account the offenders’ efforts since their arrest to turn their lives around
“I think he has certainly expressed his remorse,” says Novy’s defence lawyer Noel O’Brien.
The judge also took into account there was an issue with the warrants police used in their investigation.
Essentially, defence could have argued the warrants police used were not the right ones and that could have ended in an acquittal if the case went to trial.
“When a person enters a guilty plea he’s waiving his right to challenge those warrants so in a give and take process the crown is prepared to say ok we will agree on lower sentence,” says O’Brien.
However, there was never a question whether the two were going to jail or not.
That’s because just days prior to the pair’s arrests, new laws regarding ecstasy production made jail sentences automatic.
“As of November 6th 2012, MDMA or ecstasy is now a schedule 1 drug and the Government has set up new mandatory punishment for those. So this type of offence carries with it now a mandatory minimum 2 years imprisonment right off that bat,” says Novy.
The 3.1 kilograms of finished product of ecstasy that was seized has a potential street value of $60,000.
Two other people were initially charged as well but those charges were dropped.
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