A trial is underway for an accused fentanyl trafficker arrested during a high-risk 2015 drug raid in Yellowknife.
Fifty-year-old Hassen Abdul Kerim Mohamed, of Burnaby, B.C., faces charges of possessing fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
In April 2015, members of Yellowknife RCMP’s emergency response team used a battering ram to break down the door of a Finlayson Drive townhouse before storming the residence.
Inside, officers located Mohamed – and a heap of drugs and cash. The townhouse leaseholder and target of the drug raid, William Castro from B.C., who dove headfirst through a second-floor window in a bid to avoid police during the raid – was arrested and charged along with Mohamed.
After pleading guilty in December of 2015, Castro was sentenced to a six-year prison sentence for dealing cocaine, marijuana and fentanyl.
The major drug bust was touted by police as having a “significant impact on the safety of the community,” by disrupting the “trend of people temporarily setting up residence in Yellowknife to sell drugs,” Sergeant Dean Riou stated at the time.
The raid that led to Castro’s hefty prison-term and Mohamed’s charges has been the focus of the judge-alone trial so far, which began on Monday.
The anatomy of the minutes-long raid was dissected throughout the first two days of the trial.
The Crown’s first witness, former Yellowknife Mountie Sgt. Richard Brown, told the court he was part of the emergency response team that entered the Finlayson Drive townhouse three years ago.
After members deployed a handheld diversionary device with the pull of a grenade-like pin – emitting a flash and a loud bang like a “shotgun blast " – Brown testified he encountered Mohamed in the second-floor bathroom.
After handcuffing Mohamed, Brown said he saw a baggie filled with a white substance between the defendant’s legs.
Brown’s testimony about the bag found near the accused was supported by two other team members who took the stand to say they also saw the white substance-filled baggie.
Mohamed’s lawyer, Jennifer Cunningham, cross-examined the officers about the procedure they followed while breaching the townhouse, shifting focus to the investigation that prompted the drug search warrant.
Under cross-examination, Brown told the court the raid had targeted Castro, their primary subject, and two others –who were never charged. Mohamed, he said, wasn’t a target.
And as another investigator testified Tuesday, Mohamed wasn’t even on the RCMP’s radar until days before the search warrant was executed, when the accused showed up at the Finlayson Drive house while Castro was under surveillance.
The same witness testified the Finlayson Drive search warrant was prompted by another major find just hours earlier.
In an agreed statement of facts reviewed by Yellowknifer, RCMP began to monitor Castro’s activity at a storage locker on Kam Lake Road in early 2015. Police observed Castro enter the locker and leave multiple times over the span of two weeks. On April 15, 2015, RCMP conducted a covert search of the storage unit, seizing 538 grams of cocaine, 175 grams of powdered cocaine, 503 fentanyl tablets and cutting agent.
With fentanyl being found, the investigator said the Finlayson Drive raid became a matter of public safety, as they believed more pills could be at the home.
According to testimony Tuesday, more drugs were found inside the home Castro and Mohamed were in.
The investigator said he found fentanyl pills wrapped in bags atop a fridge. Inside the fridge, he testified, were bags of marijuana stored in the “butter compartment” and the vegetable crisper.
He said a search of a safe in what they believed was Castro’s room yielded large sums of cash and cocaine.
Tuesday’s final witness, Corp. James Strowbridge testified he located crack, a digital scale and more marijuana in the living room. Apart from pot-related paraphernalia, he said there were no signs of drug use.
Two other officers and an expert witness are set to be called to the stand by Crown prosecutor Duane Praught next as the trial continues Thursday.