Stratford man pleads guilty to fentanyl charge after big Charlottetown bust

A 30-year-old Stratford man has pleaded guilty to possessing fentanyl for the purpose of selling it after a seizure that Charlottetown Police touted as one of the province's largest to date. 

Tye James Poirier appeared in Charlottetown provincial court Thursday morning by video link from the provincial jail, where he has been since his arrest nearly seven months ago.

Poirier pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking on the fentanyl charge and the federal Crown prosecutor dropped two other drug charges.

Poirier's legal aid lawyer, Chris Van Ouwerkerk, asked for a pre-sentence report on his client, which will have to be completed before the case moves on to sentencing.

Such a report delves into the accused's personal history through a series of interviews with people who know or have encountered the offender, to give the judge a better understanding of the circumstances around the offence.

The facts of the case against Poirier were not read out in court Thursday, but Van Ouwerkerk says the defence doesn't plan to dispute what the Crown will put forward in March.

Second-largest bust in P.E.I. history

Charlottetown Police have said they arrested Poirier on June 14, 2024, after a street crime unit investigation — seizing 339 grams of fentanyl and about 1,000 pills.

Stratford man pleads guilty after one of P.E.I.'s largest-ever fentanyl busts

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Tye James Poirier has pleaded guilty in provincial court in Charlottetown to possession for the purposes of trafficking, after 339 grams of fentanyl were seized from him last June. In exchange, the Crown dropped two other federal drug charges.

At the time, police believed it to be the second-largest fentanyl bust in the province's history, with the street value on that drug alone estimated at about $170,000.

Fentanyl and other high-potency opioids have been pinpointed as fuel for the overdose, homelessness and mental health crises seen across North America in the last decade.

P.E.I.'s Chief Public Health Office had to warn Islanders about fentanyl circulating in the community at least twice in 2024: once in February, after there were seven overdoses in one day; and then after six overdoses on another single day in June.

Poirier is a former employee of the Charlottetown-based emergency shelter for those experiencing homelessness.

That shelter is run by the Department of Housing, Land and Communities, but the province has said Poirier parted ways with that job in December of 2023, six months before his 2024 arrest.

No link between Poirier's drug dealing and his employment with that shelter has been established in court. 

Poirier will be back before Judge Jeff Lantz for sentencing on March 7.