Fentanyl dealer caught with more than 1,000 fake pills gets 2-year sentence

A B.C. Supreme Court judge sentenced a fentanyl dealer busted with more than 1,000 fake Oxycontin pills to two years less a day Friday.

Justice Nigel Kent admitted in his ruling that some might find the sentence for 26-year-old Jasondeep Johal lenient — but cited in his reasoning that knowledge of the dangers of fentanyl was not as prevalent in 2015 as it is today.

According to the ruling, Johal was arrested in August 2015 in a rental car with the fake pills and three cellphones.

Crown had sought five years for Johal. Kent agreed he was more than a street-level dealer based on "the sheer quantity of the fentanyl, involving over 1,000 potential death sentences."

Mitigating factors

The judge, however, also noted Johal's youth — he was 23 when arrested — and first-time offender status.

And he noted R. v. Smith, a B.C. Court of Appeal case that recommended a sentencing range of 18 months to three years for first-time fentanyl dealers — but only for offenders whose crimes took place after 2016 because of the relative lack of knowledge of the opioid before then.

"I am of the view that, as a general principle, early 2016 should be the minimum threshold," Kent wrote of that issue.

But he added: "Persons caught trafficking in high volumes of such a pernicious, potentially fatal substance must receive significant jail sentences in order to meet these objectives."

In addition to his jail term, Johal was sentenced to two years of probation.