'Merchants of death' need stiff sentences for trafficking fentanyl: Alberta Court of Appeal

A Calgary man received a one-year sentence reduction Wednesday on his 17-year prison term for trafficking fentanyl, but the Alberta Court of Appeal reaffirmed the need to send a message to the city's "merchants of death" through stiff sentences. 

Jonathan Sunstrum, 63, was caught in 2019 with a kilogram of fentanyl hidden in Cheerios boxes.

That amount is capable of producing 820,000 doses with a value of up to $24 million when sold at street level. 

In October 2021, Justice Mark Tyndale handed Sunstrum a 17-year sentence.

Defence had argued for a nine- to 12-year prison term while the Crown proposed a 16-year sentence.

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Sunstrum appealed his sentence, and while he did received a reduction by one year, the panel of Alberta Court of Appeal judges issued a strongly worded decision, reaffirming Tyndale's efforts to deter fentanyl traffickers.

"There can be no overstating the threat this drug poses to the well-being of our society," reads the decision. "The people who traffic this drug for money are literally merchants of death."

The court noted that in 2020, more than 1,100 Albertans died from fentanyl overdoses, a number that did not account for those who survived but were left with permanent brain damage. 

Police said the fentanyl seized from Sunstrum had a potency of 10 to 15 times what is typically sold on streets in Western Canada. 

'A class of offenders with few equals'

The court of appeal wrote that it is obligated to do what it can to address the problem but its means are limited to imposing sentences that will deter other traffickers. 

The amount of fentanyl seized from Sunstrum was one of the largest seizures in Canada at the time, the court noted, "placing him in a class of offenders with few equals."

"As a court, we are obliged to do what we can to address this problem," wrote the judges. 

"Viewed from that perspective, the trial judge's emphasis was entirely appropriate, resulting in a sentence that was proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and the offender's responsibility for it."

Sunstrum VP of trafficking group

Sunstrum was arrested after police spent two months surveilling him engaged in "large scale" drug trafficking, meeting with people in public bathrooms, in alleys, on roadsides and at local gyms.

After hearing evidence, Justice Tyndale found Chang Yun was the "top man in this organization" while Sunstrum was "in corporate parlance … the executive vice-president of the company."

Tyndale ruled a 19- to 21-year sentence was appropriate but reduced it to 17 years to avoid a "crushing sentence."

In the end, the province's top court reduced Sunstrum's sentence because Tyndale jumped the Crown's proposed sentence without Sunstrum being given the chance to receive mitigating credit for entering a true guilty plea rather than inviting a conviction based on findings of facts. 

Sunstrum ran for Calgary mayor in the city's 2007 and 2013 civic elections.

The court was told he was a successful businessman who fell into "desperate financial straights" when a business partner embezzled more than $130,000 from their shared business, leading him to drug trafficking.