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Whose drugs are these?

A Nakusp man has been acquitted of trafficking charges after the Crown failed to prove he knew there were four ounces of a variety of drugs in the borrowed jacket he was wearing.

On the evening of Jan. 6, 2018, two officers approached a truck on the side of the road outside of Kelowna with a licence plate that matched an impaired driver complaint they had received.

Thomas Dill and Glen Chevalier were inside the truck, and while an officer was talking with Dill, a small bag of cannabis fell to the ground. Dill was arrested for possession.

During his arrest, police found more drugs in his jacket – cocaine, methamphetamine and a mixture of fentanyl and heroin. There was also a scale and several small baggies in the jacket as well.

Dill, 46, had been working at a former mill site in Beaverdell that morning that's used to host raves and music festivals.

At one point during the morning, a neighbour of the property came by with her dog and, after chatting with Dill, went into a trailer on the property and brought Dill a jacket to wear while he worked. The neighbour said she had grabbed a jacket from a pile of several others, because she thought he may be cold. 

Later, when Dill drove into Kelowna with Chevalier, he kept the jacket on, until his arrest.

Dill claimed he didn't know the drugs were in the jacket. The owner of the jacket, a woman from Nakusp, has since died.

Earlier this month, Justice Nitya Iyer ruled that while she was “suspicious of the circumstances,” she said the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dill was aware of the drugs.

Dill was previously convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking in 2013 in New Denver. He was sentenced to two years jail, minus one day. He has also served six months in 2016 following a conviction for pointing a firearm in Nakusp.



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