Multiple charges lead to three-year jail term

A Niagara man facing a number of charges including dangerous driving was arrested with a plastic toy egg filled with heroin hidden inside his rectum, court heard Monday.

Niagara police also seized crystal meth, cocaine, GHB, marijuana, hash, prescription medication and a large quantity of Canadian currency after they executed a search warrant at Michael Pereira’s St. Catharines apartment in June 2016.

In an Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Monday, the 40-year-old was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars on a multitude of charges. The sentence was reduced to 90 days as the defendant had spent the equivalent of a three-year jail term in pre-trial custody.

Court was told Pereira was arrested in March 2016 after police conducted a routine traffic stop in St. Catharines and discovered he was carrying a stun gun, a knife, cash, heroin, crystal meth, marijuana and prescription pills.

The crystal meth alone had a potential street value of $8,000, federal prosecutor Darren Anger told Judge Tory Colvin.

In June 2016, police were in the area of Lake Street and Russell Avenue in St. Catharines when they observed Pereira, who did not have a driver’s license, drive through a stop sign.

Police tried to stop the vehicle, but the defendant accelerated at a high rate of speed. The pursuit continued onto the Torontobound lanes of the QEW. Police discontinued the pursuit for safety reasons.

Five days later, court heard, police discovered where Pereira was living and he was arrested without incident. At the time of his arrest, he was hiding the hollow plastic egg filled with heroin inside his rectum.

Police searched his apartment and seized crystal meth, heroin, cocaine, GHB, marijuana, hash, prescription medication and a quantity of cash.

Also Monday, Pereira was placed on a 12-month peace bond in relation to a fight in July 2015 at Niagara Detention Centre which left an inmate with several injuries.