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Man gets two years for ‘dial-a-dope’ operation

One of two people convicted of running a “dial-a-dope” scheme in Burnaby will spend a couple years in prison for the crime. A B.C.
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A B.C. Supreme Court Judge recently handed Kevin Gonzales a two-year prison term for pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine on multiple occasions between August and November 2012 in both Burnaby and Coquitlam.

One of two people convicted of running a “dial-a-dope” scheme in Burnaby will spend a couple years in prison for the crime.

A B.C. Supreme Court Judge recently handed Kevin Gonzales a two-year prison term for pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine on multiple occasions between August and November 2012 in both Burnaby and Coquitlam.

A second man, Christopher Fundal, also pleaded guilty to the crimes but received a two-year sentence to be served in the community.

According to the judge’s decision, which was handed down on Nov. 15, the offenders both participated in a dial-a-dope operation between Aug. 16 and Nov. 23, 2012, selling cocaine to undercover RCMP officers.

Court documents detail some of the transactions that went on between the officers and the two men.

On Oct. 11, an undercover officer called the suspected dial-a-dope operation and spoke to Gonzales, known as “Tim,” and arranged to buy a half ounce of powder cocaine. They met at a London Drugs in Burnaby where Gonzales provided 16.38 grams of powder cocaine in exchange for $850.

Gonzales told the officer he could get either powder or crack cocaine. Gonzales stated the price for one ounce of powder was $1,600. Later that day, Gonzales sent a text message to the officer stating that the cost of a quarter kilogram of crack cocaine was $11,700.  

In another incident, on Oct. 26, the undercover officer contacted Gonzales and asked for a half ounce of powdered cocaine. Gonzales said he needed 45 minutes to fill the order.

Surveillance caught him visiting a suspected stash house before he met with the undercover officer at the Brentwood Mall parking lot. Gonzales gave the officer 16.14 grams of powder cocaine for $850.

The officer asked Gonzales if he had crack cocaine to sample and the suspect pulled out between 20 and 30 plastic bags of crack cocaine from the console of his vehicle and gave one bag to the officer. Gonzales confirmed he made more money from selling crack than from selling powder cocaine.

In his decision, Justice Robert Jenkins found Gonzales’s involvement in the dial-a-dope operation was at least that of a mid-level drug trafficker. The judge noted Gonzales’s fingerprints being on the newspaper in which the cocaine was wrapped confirms his involvement in preparing the drugs for the transaction in addition to his authority to negotiate the purchase price.

“Your level of involvement must, in the circumstances, result in an emphasis on denunciation and deterrence rather than on rehabilitation,” Jenkins wrote. “Higher level drug transactions commonly result in a period of incarceration served in an institution, and that is the case here.” 

As for Fundal, the judge found his involvement in the drug operation was at a low level of authority. 

The judge also wrote that a jail term for Fundal, who was 22 at the time of the offences, is unlikely to assist his goal to be freed from former connections in the drug world and could set him back.