Crown wants couple convicted in major drug bust to go to prison

Pair charged after seven-month probe; case dropped against two co-accused

A couple who pleaded guilty to a number of offences related to a major drug bust should receive jail time, a prosecutor argued Friday.

Cameron Mak and Charleen Teresa Flintroy were arrested and charged following an operation by the Vancouver police dubbed Project Trooper.

The main target of the seven-month investigation that began in September 2014 was a man named Dennis Halstead, who was also charged in the case, but had his charges stayed after a judge determined that his rights had been violated.

Jason James Heyman, a fourth person accused in the case, also had his charges set aside due to charter violations.

Mak and Flintroy, who were in a relationship at the time and remain together, pleaded guilty in 2018 to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking.

Mak also pleaded guilty to possessing fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking. The offences occurred in March 2015.

Crown counsel Travis Johnson said in his sentencing submissions Friday that the pair was involved at the mid-level of drug trafficking. There were people above them in the drug organization and people below them, he said.

The couple's offences related to multiple kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine that had been seized by police at a drug stash house in New Westminster. The drugs were packaged at the location and then transported to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside for distribution at the street level.

Johnson said the Crown and defence had agreed on a joint submission calling for Mak to get a seven-year jail term, reduced to 51/2 years after giving him credit for pre-sentence custody. He told B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Crossin that Flintroy should receive a sentence of 21/2 years in jail.

The prosecutor noted that Mak was the “directing mind” of the couple in terms of their involvement in the drug organization.

Ken Westlake, a lawyer for the two accused, told the judge that a more appropriate sentence for Flintroy would be a suspended sentence given a number of what he called exceptional circumstances in her case.

He said that both of his clients were addicted to drugs and were both “very caring, kind, understanding, wonderful” people, but for the fact that they were now in court on serious offences.

“That's the tragedy,” he told the judge.

The defence lawyer cited a number of letters of reference for the couple, noting that the majority were from people the couple had helped go through drug recovery.