Drugs, gun land man in prison for 7 years

His partner in crime had thousands of pages of notes on stealing people’s identities

KITCHENER — A Waterloo man caught with stolen identity documents, a cache of drugs and a loaded handgun has been sent to prison for seven years.

“He has simply shown that he has become a career criminal, unfortunately,” Justice Michael Epstein said in sentencing Christopher Morelli. “To date, efforts at getting his attention simply have not worked.”

Morelli’s partner in crime, Andrijana Ninkovic, had thousands of pages of “very organized and methodical” notes on drug debts and theft of people’s identities, federal prosecutor Kathleen Nolan said.

In notebooks, Ninkovic practised signatures of people she planned to rip off.

“On some of those pages there were clearly detailed plans and names of people together with references to Equifax and other credit agencies and several details about people and creations of new passwords for them in order to access their information,” Nolan said in an email.

“They show how quickly one’s identity can be stolen and quickly used to incur massive loss on behalf of those whose identification documents are stolen.” Ninkovic will be sentenced on April 18. Morelli, 40, and Ninkovic, 29, pleaded guilty on Friday to a raft of charges, including possession of cocaine and meth for the purpose of trafficking and identitytheft offences. Morelli also pleaded guilty to gun charges.

“In summary, the gun, the drugs, the identity documents, that’s a chilling scenario,” Nolan said.

Ninkovic, who has no prior record, seemed unmoved after pleading guilty to seven charges. She smiled often.

Morelli tried to take the fall when he and Ninkovic were entering guilty pleas. “All the drugs were mine,” he told the judge.

Police had Morelli under surveillance after confidential informants said he was selling drugs and had weapons.

He and Ninkovic were arrested last June after ordering food at a McDonald’s on Victoria Street North in Kitchener. Morelli was carrying a loaded pistol. He was

under five weapons prohibitions at the time.

In the car Morelli and Ninkovic were in, police found 95 grams of meth, 26 grams of cocaine, scales, drug packaging, cash and identity documents in other people’s names. Ninkovic had a small amount of fentanyl in her bra. Morelli also had a bit of a fentanyl-heroin mix.

In their apartment at 300 Regina St. N. in Waterloo, police found a replica handgun, 100 rounds of ammunition and more identification documents.

Morelli, a meth addict, has a long criminal record for everything from dangerous driving to possession for the purpose of trafficking.

A father of three children, he grew up in Southampton and got involved in crime at an early age.

Outside court, defence lawyer Sean Safa said he once asked Morelli when he will change his ways.

“He said, ‘It’s the only thing I’ve known since I was 12.’ He enjoys the life of having drugs and cars and guns.”

The judge asked Morelli if he wanted to say anything before sentencing.

“I’m just ready to get this over with,” he said.

Epstein agreed to a joint submission from the Crown and defence for seven years in prison. After enhanced credit for pretrial custody, Morelli has another six years and 45 days to serve.

He faces a lifetime weapons ban and a two-year driving ban. He must give a DNA sample.

“Good luck to you,” the judge told Morelli before he was led off to prison.

“I hope that you can come out with a better attitude and perhaps do something positive with your life.”