A Vernon man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to possessing a mixture of heroin and fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking in a dial-a-dope operation.
Dana John Kirton was arrested last June after police surveillance of a pick-up truck noted 25 stops over three days at various locations around Vernon.
People got in and out of the passenger seat of the truck in under a minute. Kirton was the driver.
Inside the vehicle police found weapons including a large knife, two collapsible batons and weighted gloves.
Officers also confiscated three cell phone, more than $700 and 29 small packages of drugs.
The 27-year-old man turned to drug trafficking to supplement his income as a concrete finisher.
In his reasons, the judge referred to the increasing number of fentanyl related deaths in Vernon in the last four years.
“What the numbers do not show is that the dead are our neighbours and that every one of them had a circle of friends and family just like Mr. Kirton’s. Their loss is our loss,” said Richard Hewson.
Kirton claimed he didn’t know the drugs he was selling contained fentanyl and there was no evidence any of his customers suffered a fatal overdose.
Kirton was sentenced to two years less a day in provincial jail.
The judge cited an early guilty plea, indicating some remorse, and no previous criminal record as mitigating factors.
However, “I find myself unable to describe Mr. Kirton as a changed person or as someone who has truly turned his life around,” said Hewson.