A 24-year-old Burnaby man caught with heroin, fentanyl and crack cocaine linked to a Coquitlam dial-a-dope operation was sentenced to 18 months in jail this month.
Jamil Ibrahim Adamu was arrested in March 2017 along with his brother Zakari and an unnamed female after a drug trafficking investigation by Coquitlam RCMP.
A search of a Hugo Boss bag Jamil Adamu was wearing revealed a Chewsome brand candy container with 28 individually wrapped baggies of drugs inside, including crack cocaine, powder cocaine and powder heroin mixed with fentanyl, according to court documents.
After a B.C. Supreme Court justice dismissed an application claiming the search violated his Charter rights, Adamu was convicted of possession for the purpose of trafficking in August.
Zakari Adamu was charged with the same crime, but his charges were stayed in January 2018, according to the Port Coquitlam court registry.
Mounties began investigating the Adamu brothers in May 2016, according to court documents, after an informant told them a man was dealing drugs in Coquitlam using a phone number later linked to Jamil Adamu.
Investigators also linked the dial-a-dope operation to a certain Nissan Altima, also associated with Adamu.
An undercover officer had been in the Altima and seen what appeared to be drugs packaged for sale when she tried to get Zakari Adamu to sell her drugs.
But he had refused, saying she would have to use the drugs in front of him first to prove she wasn’t an undercover cop, according to court documents.
Investigators changed tack after that and started surveilling the Adamus to gather enough evidence to get a search warrant.
Over eight days between November 2016 and February 2017, officers reported witnessing multiple examples of drug-dealing behaviour by the Altima and other vehicles associated with Adamu.
Defence lawyer Scott Wright argued Adamu, who had no prior criminal record, should get a suspended sentence or short jail term.
He noted Adamu had had no more brushes with the law since his arrest in 2017 and that that showed his remorse.
Adamu had also recently lost his best friend to a drug overdose, according to Wright, and he “greatly regrets his behaviour and understands the terrible results that can flow from his activities.”
Crown prosecutor Heather Russell, however, argued Adamu should be sent to jail for two years, noting precedents set by other cases involving fentanyl.
In the end, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather MacNaughton sentenced him to 18 months in jail.
As aggravating factors, she noted his offences appeared to have been motivated by greed rather than to support a drug habit.
She also expressed concern that Adamu had not told his parents about his arrest and charges until a sentencing hearing last month.
“This, coupled with the fact that the pre-sentencing report did not contain any expressions of Mr. Adamu’s remorse for selling fentanyl or recognition about the risks to our society of doing so, suggests that Mr. Adamu has not truly accepted responsibility for his criminal behaviour,” MacNaughton said.
