Niagara Falls drug trafficker sentenced to 12 years behind bars

‘That’s a lot of death,’ judge tells accused

A Niagara Falls man will spend the next 12 years behind bars after a police investigation into stolen property led to the discovery of more than $100,000 in fentanyl.

Stephen Marsh, 44, appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Friday and pleaded guilty to several offences including possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking and assault.

Niagara Regional Police arrested the defendant in May 2022 as part of an investigation into stolen property.

Following his arrest, he was searched and detectives discovered 1.6 kilograms of fentanyl, five cellphones and more than $2,000 in cash.

Police said at the time of the arrest the estimated street value of the opioids was $102,000.

“Typically, in a year, one person will die of a fentanyl overdose or an opioid overdose every two days,” Judge Fergus ODonnell said.

“That’s a lot of death, a lot of families torn apart, a lot of people with all their potential, and challenges, dying.”

The judge told the offender 1.6 kilograms of fentanyl had the potential to cause “tremendous damage to society” if it had not been seized by police.

“You do the math,” ODonnell told the defendant.

“The only question would be how many people did you kill and not so much, would you have killed somebody?”

Marsh also pleaded guilty to unrelated charges stemming from a traffic stop and subsequent raid at a Lundy’s Lane hotel in October 2022.

Those offences occurred while he was on release and awaiting disposition on the first set of charges.

Court was told the defendant was arrested in Niagara Falls following a traffic stop and found to be in possession of 628 grams of fentanyl.

Police searched a motel room as part of the investigation and discovered stolen identity documents, a dismantled .22calibre rifle, a loaded imitation handgun, ammunition, counterfeit $50 bills and currency “stencils.”

Marsh also pleaded guilty to two counts of assault that occurred at Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold in February and April 2023.

In both incidents, the victims refused to co-operate with police.

“Assaults in a jail setting are challenging because in one sense they’re part of the ‘culture,’ they’re part of a reality we kind of want to deny which is that the correctional officers are not necessarily in charge of what happens in a jail,” the judge said.

“There’s this parallel justice system, if I can call it that except the word justice doesn’t belong in there, which is kind of an enforcement culture which involves a disproportionate number of multiple offenders on a single victim and that’s very troubling.”

The judge urged the defendant to take advantage of any programs or services made available to him while behind bars.

“It will put you in a better position upon release to support yourself, stay out of trouble and re-establish your relationship with your children,” ODonnell said.

“That has to be job one,” he said. “You still have more than half of your life ahead of you so focus on the importance of being in the best position to live that life.”