Dial-a-dope cocaine dealer Marco Trasolini was sentenced to eight months in jail Tuesday.
A married father of two young children who pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine had to be jailed because he operated a dial-a-dope operation in a Burnaby park that’s frequently used by children, his trial heard on Tuesday.
Before Marco Trasolini, 39, was led away in handcuffs to immediately begin serving his eight-month sentence, he called out to his sobbing wife to not worry about him and “take care of the kids.”
His wife seemed confused when she realized Trasolini was going straight to jail without a chance to say goodbye.
Provincial Court Judge Reg Harris sentenced the Burnaby labourer to time in custody, ignoring his defence lawyers’ pleas for a suspended sentence plus a lengthy probation, ruling the crime was serious because he sold the drugs through a phone delivery service and exchanged the drugs for money in a parking lot at Squint Park.
Harris said a conditional sentence, known as house arrest, was “disproportionate” to the crime because it wouldn’t adequately denounce the trafficking or deter others.
“Drug dealers need to know these actions will not be tolerated,” said Harris as he read his decision.
He also pointed out dealing in a park frequented by children “exposed young persons to the perils of drug trafficking and to a drug culture.”
“To protect the future, we need to protect our youth,” said Harris.
Under new federal laws passed in 2012, the crime was automatically punishable with a minimum mandatory two-year jail sentence, but Trasolini’s lawyers argued that two years was disproportionate to the crime and Harris agreed.
Crown prosecutor Paul Riley had asked for Trasolini to be jailed for 18 months.
Harris said the sentence was also influenced by the fact that cocaine is a dangerous drug and that Trasolini “actively engaged in a dial-a-dope operation for several months,” something that required planning and a calculated effort and wasn’t an impulsive act.
But he said the sentence was mitigated by Trasolini’s guilty plea, his remorse, his rehabilitation and the support of his family.
Trasolini was arrested in August 2013 after police, who had been watching Trasolini and had observed him in seven brief meetings “indicative of drug trafficking” on three separate dates, saw him exchange cocaine for money.
They also found $1,800 in cash in his freezer and a scale, but no other drugs in his residence. The cash, plus his Ford 150 pickup, were seized by police under civil forfeiture laws.
twitter.com/susanlazaruk
See more from The Province at www.theprovince.com.
