Nine years for hauling coke

Photo: Facebook

A North Okanagan man has been given a nine-year jail sentence for his part in a massive drug trafficking operation out of Saskatchewan.

Ronald Charles Learning, 33, was sentenced in Regina provincial court on June 13th.

Learning has been credited with 161 days already served, said a court clerk. He has also been banned from driving for ten years.

Learning was convicted in May of possession of cocaine and ecstasy for the purpose of trafficking.

The court found Learning acted as a drug courier, driving a van tracked by police from Saskatchewan to Salmon Arm where he was arrested in October, 2011.

The shipment of drugs in the van had earlier been discovered in secret compartments by police, who had substituted the drug with a fake substance and added a tracking device.

The cocaine would have had a value of between $1.2 million and $2.3 million, depending on how the drug was to be broken down and sold.

Learning was the last member of a trafficking gang to be sentenced. The others included Brock Ernest Palfrey who was given 18 years in jail in 2012, William Bruce Larsen who was given 12 years and Troy Ernest Swanson who received an 11 year sentence. All three are from the Vernon-Coldstream area.

Learning is expected to make a video appearance from prison in a Vernon courtroom on Oct. 6 when he'll face several weapons charges dating back to January 2015.