c-ray
04-29-2006, 09:53 PM
Jane Seyd
jseyd@nsnews.com
04/28/2006
http://www.nsnews.com/issues06/w042306/044306/news/044306nn6.html
A drug courier from Bowen Island who agreed to transport 60 kilograms of commercially packed marijuana for an $800 fee was handed a nine-month conditional sentence Monday with five months of house arrest after pleading guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Judge Carol Baird Ellan of the North Vancouver provincial court handed the sentence to Annette Pembroke, 49, for her role in transporting the commercial pot crop.
Police estimated the value of the pot at anywhere from $211,000 to $290,000.
Pembroke was busted Nov. 25, 2005, when West Vancouver police pulled over a vehicle on Royal Avenue in Horseshoe Bay after noticing a woman in the passenger seat - Pembroke - who appeared to be in distress.
When the police officer asked Pembroke to roll down her window, he was hit with an overpowering odour of gasoline, coming from four large red gas cans inside the vehicle. Crown counsel John Whyte said the smell from the gas was so strong, the police officer was "nauseated by it" and concerned the vehicle might explode in the residential neighbourhood.
"One is tempted to conclude the purpose of having them was to mask the odour of 132 pounds of marijuana in the back of the vehicle," he said.
Whyte said the pot was contained in three large red hockey bags and packaged in large ziplock bags and airtight shrink-wraps, typical of marijuana packaged in commercial grow ops.
Whyte asked for a year of jail time, arguing drug couriers are a "vital cog" in a major criminal operation.
But Pembroke's lawyer Sheldon Goldberg said the incident was a one-off lapse in judgment for a person with no criminal record. He suggested a four-month conditional sentence.
Before handing down her sentence, Baird Ellan asked if Pembroke had helped police determine who was running the grow op. "It concerns me that there are so many people at the low-level or even the mid-level (before the courts) and who knows who it was who is behind it," she said.
But Goldberg said Pembroke had not given any information to police because she was afraid for her safety.
"That's the usual answer," said Baird Ellan.
Pembroke will remain under house arrest until Sept. 15, but will be allowed out to work and for certain hours to take care of family and personal business.
Crown dropped similar drug charges against 52-year-old William Antrobus, the driver of the vehicle that was stopped in Horseshoe Bay, who had been co-accused with Pembroke.
jseyd@nsnews.com
04/28/2006
http://www.nsnews.com/issues06/w042306/044306/news/044306nn6.html
A drug courier from Bowen Island who agreed to transport 60 kilograms of commercially packed marijuana for an $800 fee was handed a nine-month conditional sentence Monday with five months of house arrest after pleading guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Judge Carol Baird Ellan of the North Vancouver provincial court handed the sentence to Annette Pembroke, 49, for her role in transporting the commercial pot crop.
Police estimated the value of the pot at anywhere from $211,000 to $290,000.
Pembroke was busted Nov. 25, 2005, when West Vancouver police pulled over a vehicle on Royal Avenue in Horseshoe Bay after noticing a woman in the passenger seat - Pembroke - who appeared to be in distress.
When the police officer asked Pembroke to roll down her window, he was hit with an overpowering odour of gasoline, coming from four large red gas cans inside the vehicle. Crown counsel John Whyte said the smell from the gas was so strong, the police officer was "nauseated by it" and concerned the vehicle might explode in the residential neighbourhood.
"One is tempted to conclude the purpose of having them was to mask the odour of 132 pounds of marijuana in the back of the vehicle," he said.
Whyte said the pot was contained in three large red hockey bags and packaged in large ziplock bags and airtight shrink-wraps, typical of marijuana packaged in commercial grow ops.
Whyte asked for a year of jail time, arguing drug couriers are a "vital cog" in a major criminal operation.
But Pembroke's lawyer Sheldon Goldberg said the incident was a one-off lapse in judgment for a person with no criminal record. He suggested a four-month conditional sentence.
Before handing down her sentence, Baird Ellan asked if Pembroke had helped police determine who was running the grow op. "It concerns me that there are so many people at the low-level or even the mid-level (before the courts) and who knows who it was who is behind it," she said.
But Goldberg said Pembroke had not given any information to police because she was afraid for her safety.
"That's the usual answer," said Baird Ellan.
Pembroke will remain under house arrest until Sept. 15, but will be allowed out to work and for certain hours to take care of family and personal business.
Crown dropped similar drug charges against 52-year-old William Antrobus, the driver of the vehicle that was stopped in Horseshoe Bay, who had been co-accused with Pembroke.