A drug trafficker who was arrested in Saanich in 2016 with $850,000 worth of fentanyl and other drugs has been sentenced to 12 years in jail.
On Dec. 1 of 2016, the VicPD Strike Force unit executed a search of a Victoria residence that led to a Saanich residence where they discovered large quantities of hard drugs and arrested Duc Khuong Pham. The seizure included 6,052 individual doses of a heroin/fentanyl mixture, 6.2 kilograms of cocaine (in powder and crack form), and 1.2 kilograms of methamphetamine. VicPD drug experts estimated at the time street value of those drugs to be $850,000.
Another $8,425 in cash was also seized.
VicPD recommended multiple drug trafficking charges against Pham, then a 27-year-old based out of Montreal.
This week Pham plead guilty of the count of possessing a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and to three other charges and has been handed a 12-year prison sentence and will also serve a 10-year firearm prohibition.
VicPD first began working on the investigation in mid-October of 2016 when the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) notified VicPD a large shipment of fentanyl destined to a Victoria address from China. CBSA officers intercepted an initial package at the time, with 1.45 kilograms of fentanyl, an estimated value of $400,000.
A lethal dose of fentanyl can be little as two milligrams, meaning the shipment was enough to cause 725,000 possible overdoses, said VicPD.