Two B.C. men have been sentenced in a fentanyl-laced cocaine trafficking operation.
Lawyers for Shervin Beehary and Azam Kabini entered guilty pleas during Monday’s proceedings.
Beehary will spend six months less a day behind bars for four counts of criminal negligence causing death.
That sentence is followed by a three-year probation term.
Beehary is a permanent resident and this sentence will allow him to remain in the country.
Four people died and three were hospitalized after consuming the laced crack cocaine and powdered cocaine in March 2018.
At the time, police issued a warning about the risk of tainted drugs.
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The judge told Beehary, “What you were is a merchant of death. That is what you were selling.”
He addressed the court and said, “I’d like to go back to my community and be a productive member of society.”
Meanwhile, Kabani received a conditional two-year less a day house arrest sentence for possession of cocaine and a $50,000 fine for proceeds of crime.
His lawyer says Kabani was found to play a smaller role, and he will serve his sentence in Metro Vancouver.
“It may not seem like that much to some people, being under house arrest, but (it is) simply being able to go to school, go to work and come home and it’s interpreted strictly,” Mark Brayford said.
Both Beehary and Kabani don’t have a prior criminal record.
A third man, Japmanjot Grewal, was also due in court, but his lawyer said Grewal was admitted to hospital after staff in the hotel where he was staying called 911.
Grewal’s lawyer didn’t give details as to why he was sent to hospital.
His proceedings will continue Sept. 15.