Court wraps up a dozen booze and drug trials

KIRSTEN MURPHY

A series of drug and alcohol busts from 2000 and 2001 were cleared from the docket in the Nunavut Court of Justice this week.

A pale Helene Pelletier, 45, was fined $1,500 on Jan. 22 and placed on probation for two years after pleading guilty to three counts of selling liquor illegally.

Pelletier spent the seven weeks preceding her trial at the Fort Smith Women’s Correctional Centre for breach of a conditional sentence from a previous charge. She was released from custody following her trial on Tuesday.

Crown counsel Christine Gagnon said the Nanook taxi driver sold three 40-ounce bottles for up to $120 from October to November last year.

In one case, Pelletier sent her common law spouse, Daniel Rioux, 37, to deliver the goods. Rioux was charged under the Liquor Act and fined $250.

• Another two bootlegging cases were adjourned. Luis Antonio Martinez heads to court Feb. 4 to face four counts of selling liquor illegally. Aurore Martin is scheduled to appear in court May 6 to face one count of selling liquor illegally.

The drugs

• Nathan Zukiwski, 31, was ordered to pay $1,000 after pleading guilty to possessing 30 grams of marijuana from a drug bust on Oct. 25, 2000.

Zukiwski was with three friends at an Iqaluit residence when RCMP officers knocked on the door. Also charged were Jayco Ellsworth, 21, Randy Hopkins, 31, and Cory Levesque, 20.

Ellsworth was fined $5,000 and placed on probation for two years for possessing $12,300 of drug money, Gagnon said.

Crown dropped two drug trafficking charges and one failure to comply charge against Ellsworth after he switched his plea to guilty on Jan. 22. The trafficking charge against Hopkins was stayed after lawyers agreed “he had nothing to do” with the narcotics, Gagnon said.

Two counts of drug trafficking against Levesque were set over to a Quebec court. However, Levesque was fined $2,000 for possessing 71g of marijuana in a separate drug charge from November last year.

• Pavlangelos Ntonados was sentenced to 90 days in jail for possessing 11g of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking on May 14. He will serve his sentence on weekends.

• Pierre Beland, 49, was fined $5,000 for possessing 26g of marijuana seized in July 2001.

• Alain Bernard, 41, was fined $500 for possessing 28g of marijuana seized in Oct. 2001.

• Steven Menard’s drug trafficking trial was re-scheduled for May 6. Nearly five kilograms of marijuana is alleged to have been seized from Menard last spring. Cpl. Robert Leger said the seizure was the biggest single drug bust in 2001.