Senior drug trafficker gets 12 years in prison

Man, 65, has extensive criminal record dating back to 1975, court hears

A 65-year-old Lakeshore man, convicted on multiple drug, weapons and other charges including some that were perpetrated while he was out on bail, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison.

After receiving credit for three years and 23 days spent in pre-sentence custody, Chirko Tasevski will serve eight years and 342 days, said Superior Court Justice Thomas Heeney in his written judgment.

On March 7, Tasevski pleaded guilty to 16 additional counts during what was supposed to be a sentencing hearing for a 2017 Windsor drug bust. Twenty other counts were withdrawn.

Heeney had found Tasevski guilty in December 2019 on three counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and two counts of possession following a trial.

Evidence linked Tasevski to stashes of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and hydromorphone and oxycodone tablets seized from a home in the 500 block of Aylmer Avenue that the Windsor Police Service’s drugs and guns unit had under surveillance in September 2017.

While Tasevski was out on bail in June 2018 pending trial for the Windsor charges, OPP officers pulled him over in his vehicle and executed search warrants on that vehicle and his Lakeshore home.

In the vehicle, according to federal prosecutor Ed Posliff, 49.7 grams of cocaine and 54 grams of methamphetamine were found stashed inside a fire extinguisher.

At the home, in a locked room, police found 178 grams of crystal methamphetamine, a gram of heroin, a .22-calibre high-velocity semi-automatic pistol, “various” ammunition and magazines, cellphones, electronic scales, an expandable baton and C$24,435 and US$510 in cash.

Posliff had sought 14 years for the most serious count, possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking, while defence counsel Bobby Russon was looking for a sentence of seven years. Heeney sentenced him to eight years on that count.

On all the counts, Heeney determined a 14½-year sentence but the justice considered Tasevski’s age and ongoing educational efforts and decided that amount of time would “constitute a crushing sentence.”

Heeney said he took into consideration Tasevski’s extensive criminal record, dating back to 1975, that includes several drug possession and trafficking convictions, possession of property obtained by crime, weapon prohibition violations, failing to comply with a recognizance and probation violations, as an aggravating factor in his sentencing decision.

He also considered Tasevski’s apology to the court for the “harm he has caused to society” and that he accepted responsibility for his actions as mitigating circumstances.

Heeney concluded a 12-year “global” sentence for all counts on both indictments was “fit and proper.”

Tasevski was also given a lifetime ban on possessing any weapons and ordered to provide a DNA sample.

Neither Posliff or Russon could be reached for comment.