Major B.C. fentanyl trafficker loses appeal of 16-year sentence
Credit to Author: Kim Bolan| Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:59:17 +0000
A major Lower Mainland fentanyl trafficker, who sold more than 50,000 of the deadly pills in a year, has lost his bid to get his 16-year sentence reduced.
The B.C. Court of Appeal rejected Andrew Leach’s arguments that he was treated unfairly by Provincial Court Judge Gene Jamieson after he pleaded guilty to several drug and firearms charges.
Appeal Court Justice Gregory Fitch said in a written ruling that while Leach’s sentence “was undoubtedly a very substantial penalty, the appellant’s moral culpability is extremely high.”
“I do not accept the position of the appellant that the sentence imposed in this case was `a misguided attempt to make an example out of one person for trafficking in fentanyl.’ The judge made clear in his reasons that the appellant could not be held responsible for the fentanyl epidemic. He was right, however, to emphasize that the appellant bears significant responsibility for contributing to the crisis,” Fitch said.
Jamieson sentenced Leach in May 2018, saying at the time that Leach was “the head of an organization with a long, lucrative history of fentanyl sales.”
“The particularly pernicious nature of the substance at the heart of this operation having been the centre of a persistent and deadly health crisis in the province must be recognized and denounced.”
Jamieson noted Leach’s repeated references to violence on wiretapped calls, including a threat to slit the throat of someone who owed him money and suggesting to an associate that his friend was a “rat” and needed to be shot.
Jamieson also pointed to racist comments Leach made about some of his own Persian drug line workers.
Fitch agreed with Leach’s lawyers that Jamieson erred when he said the racist views were an aggravating factor in this case. But Fitch also said there were enough other aggravating factors considered to support the lengthy prison term.
“Given the number and type of aggravating circumstances present in this case, the appellant’s racist beliefs cannot reasonably be supposed to have played any material role in the imposition of sentence,” Fitch said. “Viewed pragmatically in light of the entirety of the appellant’s conduct, his odious beliefs, although referred to by the judge, must certainly have been overwhelmed by other aggravating considerations.”
Leach made hundreds of thousands of dollars while operating his drug line in 2016 and 2017. He talked about getting more guns to expand into Langley. He and other family members were charged in August 2017 after a year-long undercover investigation. The charges against his relatives were stayed after he pleaded guilty.
Leach was earlier convicted of manslaughter after fatally stabbing a Hells Angels associate during a drunken fight, which Fitch agreed was a relevant factor in sentencing.
Fitch said Leach “put his own welfare over the welfare of the community and must be held to strict account for the harm he undoubtedly caused.”
His conduct “called for a severe sentence that reflected his high moral culpability and emphasized specific and general deterrence as well as denunciation. I cannot say that the aggregate 16‑year sentence imposed by the judge is demonstrably unfit,” Fitch said.
Justices John Hunter and David Frankel agreed.
The director of civil forfeiture has filed lawsuits to get two residences owned by Leach and his mother forfeited to the government, alleging that they were used for illegal activity.
When police searched his mom’s house, they found four firearms, ammunition and 2,000 fentanyl pills in her bedroom closet. In her daughter’s room, they found $450,270 under the bed. In her grandson’s room, another $224,089 was found, as will as 9 mm ammunition.
Two more pistols, both with destroyed serial numbers, were found in the house’s garage, wrapped in tea towels, along with more ammunition and a second silencer.
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