A convicted West Kelowna, B.C., fentanyl dealer will again be released to a halfway house, seven months after having the privilege taken away for behaviour the Parole Board of Canada said “lacked transparency” and indicated a return to a previous “crime cycle.”
Leslie John McCulloch, 44, was described as “slippery” and comfortably dishonest in the document describing why his day parole privileges were being returned. But the overall risk to society was deemed to be low enough to grant release, largely because of a thorough plan to keep his lesser behaviours in check and his ongoing sobriety.
“While your unwillingness to work openly and transparently with your case management team is clearly a concern, the board will place some limited and admittedly skeptical weight on your claim that you have re-considered your attitude during the seven months you have been back in prison,” the parole document to McCulloch read.
“Strictly on a cost-benefit analysis, perhaps you are intelligent enough to realize that being more transparent with your CMT is in your best interest.”
He will be released into a community-based facility in the Calgary area with a number of conditions, including cellphone monitoring and ongoing treatment for varying issues.
McCulloch first gained day parole in September 2021, a couple of years into an eight-year prison sentence for, among other things, trafficking and production of a substance, and possession in 2015.
To maintain leave privileges at that time, five special conditions had to be met, specifically: not to consume, purchase or possess drugs other than prescribed medication taken as prescribed and over-the-counter drugs taken as recommended by the manufacturer; financial disclosure; not to associate or communicate with any person involved in criminal activity; to follow a treatment plan in the areas of emotions management and substance abuse; and a telecommunications restriction.
In short order, he was flagged for behaviour that looked reminiscent of his crime days and taken back into custody.
His room at the halfway house where he was staying was searched and found were identification in the name of “Alexander Lester Kreed,” a credit card and some pre-paid visa cards that were in contravention of the financial disclosure special condition, and an iPhone that did not have a SIM card but was a second phone and therefore a violation of the telecommunications special condition.
Once he was incarcerated again his situation was reviewed and his case management team did not find him to be reliable enough for release. In an interview that followed, the board review panel also found cause to be critical of his character.
“The board found your answers to be convenient and not reliable and persuasive. The board got the impression that you are in fact quite deceptive and certainly arrogant in that you seem to think directions and conditions do not apply to you if they are inconvenient,” the parole board wrote.
“To use a metaphor, the board sees you as “slippery’. You tell the truth if it is convenient or if you are caught in a lie, otherwise, you seem to have no concern about being dishonest.“
In 2015 McCulloch was identified by the police as being involved in importing substances that are used to make illicit drugs. He was also seen associating with known drug traffickers and a high-ranking member of a well-known and sophisticated gang, which the CSC refers to as a “security threat group.”
The police determined that he was producing counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and he was arrested alongside his fiancée in March 2016.
A search of his business and residence resulted in the recovery of 938 oxycodone pills believed to contain fentanyl, over $35,000 in cash, score sheets, scales, money counters, 500ml of GHB, a small amount of cocaine, money transfer receipts totalling $15,500 transferred to China, 406 grams of cetyfentanyl divided into eight small bags, two pill presses, a pill counter, plastic bags with oxycodone pills, pill-binding agents and other powders of various weights.