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Dial-a-dope phone operator sentenced to 30 months

Dube-drug-bust

Yohannes Seyoume, one of four “primary” dial-a-dope phone operators in Todd Dube's drug ring, was handed a 30 month sentence Thursday in NWT Supreme Court.

Due to time served, which amounts to 7 months with credit – he was in custody from his arrest on April 4, 2016 until his release on bail in August, 2016 – Seyoume will spend 23 months behind bars for his active role in the Dube-lead drug network.

Dube was handed a stiff nine year sentence in October.

Before sentencing Seyoume on one count of trafficking in cocaine, a charge he plead guilty to in November, Judge Shannon Smallwood asked the 21-year-old Edmonton man if he had anything to say to the court.

Standing, Seyoume expressed his remorse.

“I just want to apologize to the City of Yellowknife and the community. I don't wish to go back to what I was doing. I am deeply sorry,” he said.

Judge Smallwood, weighing submissions from Crown prosecutor Duane Praught and defence lawyer Peter Harte, said mitigating factors, including Seyoume's early guilty plea, young age and absence of a criminal record, weren't enough to warrant leniency.

Returning to remarks made on Tuesday during a facts and sentencing hearing, Judge Smallwood balked at the defence's suggestion a sentence shouldn't send a message of deterrence and denouncement on the “back” of Seyoume.

Rather, Judge Smallwood said it's the victims, drug addicts, whose backs this case – and its consequences – rest on, not Seyoume's.

After being sentenced to well over 6 months, a term that puts Seyoume at risk of deportation back to Kenya, Smallwood sympathized with his "unfortunate" situation, but said he took that risk when he decided to sell drugs.

Seyoume must submit a sample of his DNA, and upon his release, he will be subject to release conditions including a 10 year firearms ban.