A Yellowknife man who imported and trafficked a form of fentanyl, later providing the potent opioid to a woman who suffered a non-fatal overdose, received an eight-year prison sentence Tuesday.
Darcy Oake, 25, was found guilty after trial of importing and possessing for the purpose of trafficking furanylfentanyl — a designer derivative of fentanyl. At the beginning of the judge-alone trial, overseen by Justice Shannon Smallwood, Oake pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking the drug.
Following his arrest in November 2016, Oake was released on recognizance. He was re-arrested in 2017 for breaching his conditions, and has been in custody ever since. With a one-and-a-half day credit for every day served, Oake has been in custody for four years and three months, meaning he has three years and nine months left to serve.
Oake will be sent south to a federal prison. He will have to submit a DNA sample and is barred from possessing firearms for 10 years.
Prosecutors had sought a nine-year sentence, while Oake’s lawyer, Kate Oja, called for a five to six year period of custody.
Smallwood also found Oake guilty of criminal negligence causing bodily harm – he supplied his longtime friend, a former addict, with furanylfentanyl he ordered online from Hong Kong.
In late October of 2016, Oake used Bitcoin and identity-masking computer software to purchase 10 grams of furanylfentanyl over the dark web. Oake contacted the seller a month later after the package had failed to arrive in Yellowknife.
The seller eventually sent Oake a replacement package. The first package of furanylfentanyl reached Oake’s Borden Drive community mailbox on Nov. 23, 2016. The replacement package, holding another 10 grams of the drug, never made it to the capital. It was seized by the Canada Border Services Agency on Nov. 27, 2016.
Moments after the first package arrived, Oake consumed the drug. He soon overdosed, collapsing on the street while walking his dog. Less than 12 hours later, Oake gave a line of the drug to his former friend. Likewise overdosing on the drug, she was rendered unconscious for 24 hours.
“(Oake) was essentially rolling the dice with her life,” Smallwood said as she handed down her decision in NWT Supreme Court Tuesday.
On Nov. 25, 2016, Oake overdosed for the second time in three days, ultimately resulting in Yellowknife RCMP searching his home. In his bedroom, officers seized four grams of furanylfentanyl. Packages from Hong Kong, addressed to Oake, were found in his garage. The seizure prompted a large-scale response from RCMP, and a team of hazmat suit-clad investigators were called in from B.C.
This story will be updated.