Crown seeks 8 year sentence for Kelowna drug trafficker

Photo: Kelowna RCMP

Police seized drugs and cash from a Lower Mission home in April 2018.

A Kelowna man is facing a significant jail sentence after police raided his home in April 2018 and found large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Police executed a search warrant on Brandon Campbell's home on Old Meadows Road on April 24, 2018, finding 627 grams fentanyl, 846 grams cocaine and 395 grams methamphetamine, along with more than $15,000 in cash.

Charges weren't laid against Campbell until the following year, when he was charged with four counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

While a trial was initially set for January 2020, Campbell instead pleaded guilty.

The Crown and defence's sentencing positions are miles apart though.

During sentencing submissions Friday morning, the Crown said they are seeking an eight year jail sentence, while Campbell's defence lawyer William Jessop is seeking a sentence of two to three years.

Campbell, now 29 years old, first appeared on the RCMP's radar several months prior to his arrest, when he was seen arriving in a right-hand drive Subaru at the home of a known drug trafficker on Ziprick Road and leaving with a bag. Police later received an anonymous tip that someone driving a right-hand drive Subaru was trafficking drugs in the Okanagan, which led to police to begin surveilling Campbell.

After observing Campbell having several suspicious meet-ups with others at his home over a few days, police pulled over a Jeep that was leaving Campbell's home on April 24.

It's unclear what police found in the Jeep, but Madam Justice Kathleen Ker noted that one of the occupants “had something concealed in the car in her cleavage.”

“They give a statement to police that they're drug traffickers and they're being supplied by this individual,” Jessop told the court Friday, adding that this gave police the grounds to get a search warrant.

Inside Campbell's rented townhouse, police found the large amounts of drugs, cash and a scale.

While Jessop acknowledged his client fit the bill of a “mid-level” trafficker, selling drugs at the ounce level to other dealers, he argued that he'd only been moving drugs on a larger scale after he lost his licence earlier in April 2018.

“This is not sort of a stash house type of operation, which speaks to the sophistication of it,” Jessop said. “I have to concede the large volume of drugs that were discovered, so it's sort of a balance there, because typically when you see that large volume of drugs discovered, you see the attempt to insulate themselves through stash houses, through third party vehicles. There's no firearms or weapons discovered in the house ... it speaks to the sophistication of an operation."

Jessop also noted that Campbell was not living a “lavish lifestyle” when he was arrested, but he was actually seriously addicted to fentanyl, smoking it daily.

Campbell's drug issues date back to high school, when he was first prescribed dilaudid. His opioid use progressed to hydromorphone, oxycontin and then heroin and fentanyl.

Jessop said Campbell has been clean from drugs since June 2020, and he has attended more than 50 appointments at Interior Health's Opioid Agonist Treatment clinic, which he voluntarily signed up for.

“He certainly recognizes that his distribution of narcotics and opiates in this community could have wrecked tens or hundreds of lives, as it almost destroyed his own life,” Jessop said.

Campbell is currently out of custody on bail. Friday morning, several family members were in the courtroom to support him.

Justice Ker reserved her sentencing decision for a later date.