Man pleads guilty in $1M Fort McMurray fentanyl, cocaine bust
‘There are bigger players in the case,’ Crown says
A man described by a Crown prosecutor as a minor player in a $1-million Fort McMurray drug bust has pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking fentanyl and cocaine.
Paul Ohelo pleaded guilty Monday morning to selling the drugs between January 30 and March 5, 2015.
"There are bigger players in the case," Crown prosecutor Adam Halliday told the Fort McMurray courtroom. "Mr. Ohelo is not the head honcho."
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Those "bigger players" include two other men who together face 13 drug-trafficking charges and two organized-crime charges from the same brief time period in 2015.
In a June 2015 press release, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) said the Fort McMurray-based cocaine and fentanyl distribution network had connections in Edmonton, Calgary and British Columbia.
In the 2015 bust, ALERT seized $1 million worth of drugs including 2,908 fentanyl pills, 7.2 kilograms of cocaine, 26.3 kilograms of marijuana and 198 grams of psilocybin or mushrooms.
They also seized six high-end vehicles, six recreational vehicles, a trailer and a speedboat.
"We pulled out all the stops to ensure that their operations would be eliminated," ALERT Insp. Chad Coles said in June 2015.
The 'big boss'
According to the statement of facts in the case, which Ohelo accepted, police used a civilian agent and an undercover police officer to make five fentanyl and cocaine purchases from the trafficking ring.
One of the members of the ring, who the statement of facts says described himself as the "big boss," negotiated the purchases and accepted payment from the undercover police team.
However, it was Ohelo who apparently delivered the drugs and collected the payments from the undercover police team.
Ohelo remains out on bail until his sentencing on July 12.
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