Drug dealer sentenced to 30 more months in jail
Four trials later, businessman Jimy Al-Ubeidi, convicted of dealing fentanyl and other drugs out of his Leamington convenience store, was handed a 30-month prison sentence Tuesday. Ontario Court Justice Robert Fournier imposed the sentence concurrent to the five-year term a different judge handed Al-Ubeidi earlier this month for another drug trafficking conviction.
With 34 months credit given at the earlier court date for almost two years already served in presentence custody, Al-Ubeidi will be behind bars for the next three years.
In sentencing the 54-year-old father of four, the judge said he had a hard time reconciling a reference letter describing how Al-Ubeidi once saved the life of a homeless young drug addict to the businessman driven by greed who “embraced shady and unethical business practices” and used his convenience store as a front for dealing some of the worst street drugs.
Fournier said denunciation and deterrence had to be paramount in his sentencing considerations given the strong negative impact on the local community represented by the abuse of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller he said was 100 hundred times more potent than morphine and 20 times more potent than heroin.
The judge said that fentanyl has only been recently recognized by the justice system for the “scourge” on local communities that it represents.
He said fentanyl has contributed to a “marked” increase in ER hospital visits for opioid-related incidents.
This week’s sentencing was the result of an OPP drug investigation and January 2014 raid on Jimy’s Convenience, which netted fentanyl patches, cocaine, oxycodone, and a large amount of cash. With Al-Ubeidi out on bail, the OPP, responding again to public complaints, raided the store a second time in August 2014. The judge presiding over that case described the convenience store as a “drop-in drug mart.”
At trial, Al-Ubeidi, shown to have filed tax returns indicating limited income, was described as a Caesars Windsor “high roller” who lost more than $100,000 gambling. He has also been repeatedly fined for selling unstamped tobacco products, avoiding hefty penalties by regularly changing his store’s name and location. Growing up in strife-torn Iraq and later spending several years in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia “left a significant mark on his life,” the judge said.
“Thirty months is a good sentence, but I feel it should have been consecutive,” said federal prosecutor Zuzana Szasz.
The judge, however, said tacking that extra 30 months onto the earlier five-year sentence would be “onerous” and not conducive to rehabilitation. During his two years in custody, Al-Ubeidi was described as a model prisoner who “used his time there productively.” After two trials ending in two acquittals, followed by two appeals and then two more trials and then two convictions, it appears AlUbeidi might be resigned to serving his time.
“I’m getting the sense it’s unlikely he’ll appeal,” defence lawyer Evan Weber told reporters after Tuesday’s court hearing. Al-Ubeidi was ordered to submit a blood sample for a police databank used to solve crimes, and he is prohibited from owning weapons for 10 years.
“Good luck to you,” Fournier told Al-Ubeidi.
“Thank you,” came the reply from the prisoner’s box.