Men arrested in apartment holding a 'vast array' of drugs, weapons sentenced to 15 years

Two men who were found in a Winnipeg apartment containing a "vast array" of dangerous drugs, weapons and cash, part of what police described as a high-level drug operation, have been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

"These two offenders were found in a suite which was effectively a pharmacy of death," Manitoba provincial court Judge Mary Kate Harvie said in her sentencing decision handed down on Dec. 10.

Luka Dak Jock, now 25, and Efren Gezehey, now 27, were sentenced for multiple drug and weapons offences, possession of the proceeds of crime and failing to comply with release orders. They were found guilty by Harvie on March 6, following a trial.

Jock and Gezehey were arrested in Winnipeg in June 2022 after police searched an apartment on Stradbrook Avenue. 

The two men were inside the apartment where police found a "vast array of drugs, weapons and cash located throughout the suite," Harvie wrote in her trial decision, including more than one kilogram of cocaine, over $20,000 worth of hydromorphone pills, 445.5 bars of Xanax and roughly one kilogram of fentanyl, some of which tested positive for carfentanil, a highly lethal opioid. 

Four handguns, including a loaded cartridge magazine with Jock's right palm print on it, and over $17,000 in cash were also found in the apartment. 

No fentanyl labs in Manitoba: WPS

Jock and Gezehey, who both arrived in Canada as refugees and who lived in Calgary, were out on bail and didn't have criminal records when they were arrested. Jock has since pleaded guilty to a robbery offence for driving a getaway car in Alberta, for which he received a 15-month sentence.

"It is disappointing to see two intelligent young men who were given opportunities in this country become involved in such serious offences," the judge said. 

The suite where the drugs and weapons were seized was in Osborne Village, "one of the most densely populated areas in the city," Harvie said, and the risk for the public at large was "real and significant."

Winnipeg police Sgt. Michelle Bacik, who was recognized in court as a drug expert, said the apartment unit housed a "high-level drug trafficking operation." 

Bacik testified that there are no fentanyl labs in Manitoba, and the highly dangerous opioid is processed in Alberta and British Columbia before it's brought into the province for sale, Harvie wrote in her trial decision. 

Bacik also testified that anyone who had access to the suite where the two were arrested enjoyed a high degree of trust and was more than just a visitor, Harvie said.

Harvie said their role in the trafficking operation remains unclear. 

There was no surveillance of the apartment before it was searched, Harvie said. There is also no evidence to determine how long the two men were at the apartment before their arrest, and both Gezehey and Jock declined to testify.

However, some of the drugs seized at the apartment were broken down for sale and were in plain sight.

"The apartment was not a large one. This is a factor which suggests on the part of both accused knowledge of the contents of the apartment," the judge said in the trial decision delivered on March 6.

Of the $17,000 in cash found in the apartment, more than $6,000 was inside Gezehey's wallet, "wrapped in a manner consistent with being drug proceeds," the conviction says.

Offenders' involvement 'critical'

The Crown sought a total sentence of 21 years, depending heavily on the argument that the sentencing range for involvement in a high-level fentanyl trafficking operation is 15 years to life in prison, Harvie said. 

The Manitoba Court of Appeal had previously declined to set a range for this level of offence, Harvie said. Still, the province's highest court recognized the danger and harm fentanyl poses to society and "endeavours to reflect it in the sentences imposed."

The "nature of the offender's involvement" in the trafficking operation is "critical to the overall sentencing analysis," Harvie said. 

The judge pointed to several court decisions and appeals related to fentanyl trafficking in Canada since 2020. One of the decisions noted that someone with "reduced moral culpability" in mid-level fentanyl trafficking, like a courier or custodian, should face "a lesser range of sentence" that is still higher than the range for offenders trafficking other hard drugs.

"The amount of sympathy I have for anyone who associates themselves in any way with a fentanyl operation can easily be contained on the head of a pin," Harvie wrote in her decision.

"The safety of the community mandates that denunciation and deterrence as the paramount sentencing principle."