Dial-a-dope drug dealer could face deportation, says lawyer
Yohannes Seyoume to be sentenced Thursday for selling cocaine under drug ring leader Todd Dube
A 21-year-old man who pocketed thousands of dollars selling cocaine for Todd Dube could face deportation depending on the sentence he receives later this week, his lawyer says.
Dube was sentenced to one of the territory's longest prison sentences for drug trafficking in October. On Monday, the sentencing hearing began for Yohannes Seyoume of Edmonton.
Seyoume pleaded guilty in November to trafficking cocaine in Yellowknife. An earlier charge of conspiracy to commit trafficking was withdrawn.
Defence lawyer Peter Harte said he believes his client could be sent back to Kenya if handed a sentence of more than six months behind bars.
Seyoume was born in Somalia, but he grew up in Kenya before coming to Canada at the age of seven, Harte told the court. He pointed to a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act on "serious criminality" to support his statement, following the hearing.
Court heard Seyoume worked as one of three dial-a-dope operators in a well-organized drug operation headed by Dube.
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The group worked by purchasing an ounce of cocaine from Dube for about $2,300 and then they would divide it into about 50 to 55 "street grams" — portions weighing half a gram each, according to the agreed statement of facts.
Seyoume rotated working 12-hour shifts with the other three operators and sold each street gram for $80 to $100.
Crown prosecutor Duane Praught told the court the operators were making between $12,000 and $15,000 per week in sales from the dial-a-dope operation.
Seyoume was involved from Feb. to Apr. 2016, until Yellowknife RCMP arrested him and Dube outside Coyote's Bistro on Apr. 4 of that year.
The arrest was one of many in what RCMP dubbed Project Green Manalishi, an investigation that targeted drug trafficking in the Northwest Territories.
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Praught recommended a sentence of 30 to 36 months, minus a credit of about seven months for the time Seyoume already spent in custody.
Although he described the man as a street-level dealer, Praught said Seyoume played an integral role in Dube's operation.
He added Seyoume's involvement was purely motivated by money.
Harte, however, suggested a sentence of two years less a day would be appropriate and noted Seyoume has no prior criminal record.
A decision is scheduled for Feb. 8 in Yellowknife Supreme Court.