Fentanyl traffickers jailed

Judge issues sentences of 3 years, 30 months

Two Niagara men who conspired to sell fentanyl patches for personal gain deserved significant jail terms as penalty for preying on the vulnerability of others and contributing to the opioid crisis, a local judge said Friday.

“To trade upon the misery of addicts is a morally bankrupt thing to do,” Judge Peter Wilkie told Jorge Santos Mendez and Guy Larocque at their sentencing hearing on charges of possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking.

The judge noted that is wasn’t too long ago that little was known about the dangers of the powerful pain killer.

“Now it’s at the centre of a national public health crisis,” he said in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

Twenty-six-year-old Mendez, who sold the patches which had been legally prescribed to his mother and Larocque, was sentenced to three years behind bars.

Larocque, a 54-year-old Port Colborne resident who weaned himself off fentanyl after discovering how dangerous the opioid can be, received a 30-month jail term.

“The courts cannot solve the fentanyl crisis but they have a role to play,” the judge said, adding penalties must not only denounce the criminal conduct but also discourage would-be offenders from engaging in similar conduct.

Niagara Regional Police launched an investigation in early 2016 into suspected drug trafficking at the Niagara Falls home Mendez shared with his mother.

A woman who was observed visiting the residence was stopped by police in April. She told authorities she had been purchasing patches from the defendant for the past eight months.

Police then executed a search warrant at the home and seized 15 full patches, partial patches and empty fentanyl boxes.

Similar charges against Mendez’s mother were dismissed once the son was sentenced.