A man and woman were sentenced for drug possession and conspiracy to traffic in a Charlottetown courtroom Friday.
James Robert Long, 43, and Elizabeth Ann Tierney, 31, both of Charlottetown pleaded guilty to the charges, which involved cocaine and hydromorphone, a prescription pain killer.
James Robert Long enters court to face charges on Nov. 28.
(CBC)
Long was sentenced to five years in jail, and Tierney to 3½.
The pair were first connected to the drug trade following a raid in May on the Route 81 Store in Charlottetown. It sold clothing and other merchandise of the Bacchus Motorcycle club, and was owned by one of the club's members, Derreck Dean Huggan.
After that raid, police got a warrant to do surveillance on Huggan and a number of his associates. That led to further arrests and more than 100 charges in November, including those against Long and Tierney.
According to court documents the police did surveillance on this group for two months. They found Long arranging for cocaine and hydromorphone to be brought over from Nova Scotia, and selling them on the street to local buyers. He was making several deals a day.
Tierney was caught in that same surveillance, buying and selling to Long, and another local dealer.
Neither Long nor Tierney chose to say anything to the judge prior to sentencing. Tierney's lawyer did say she'd become addicted to prescription drugs after a serious car accident 10 years ago, and was dealing now to support her habit.
In passing sentence, provincial Chief Judge John Douglas said he'd first met Tierney 30 years ago when she used to play in his backyard with other kids. It was a sad day for him, he said, to sentence a former neighbour. He hoped she would smile and laugh again.
