Man given conditional term for drug trafficking

A 19-year-old Whitehorse man received a four-month conditional sentence in territorial court last Thursday after he pleaded guilty to charges of drug trafficking.

A 19-year-old Whitehorse man received a four-month conditional sentence in territorial court last Thursday after he pleaded guilty to charges of drug trafficking.

Keefer Delafosse was charged in the summer of 2007 after RCMP discovered 341 grams, or approximately one pound, of marijuana in a vehicle Delafosse was driving.

Police also located $290 in cash, scales, baggies and other drug paraphernalia, as well as a pellet gun that was initially thought to be a handgun.

Delafosse was released on conditions, but served 13 days in custody in the late fall of 2007 after breaching his recognizance.

Delafosse was arrested again last Nov. 21 when he was discovered riding in the vehicle of a known drug dealer.

Elaine Cairns, Delafosse’s legal counsel, described the two weeks her client spent in custody as “a big wake-up call.“

“He has turned his life around so as not to return to (Whitehorse Corrections Centre),“ said Cairns.

Crown counsel Jennifer Grandy asked for a four- to six-month conditional sentence and a probational term in her submission.

She said the amount of marijuana in the case is “not an insignificant amount” and added that, in reference to the pellet gun, “drugs and weapons do not mix.“

Delafosse has maintained that the pellet gun did not belong to him.

A person under the age of 18 was also riding in the vehicle at the time of Delafosse’s initial arrest last summer.

Judge John Faulkner said in his decision there is “no question whatever” the Delafosse was involved in a commercial-level drug operation.

After his arrest, police received phone calls on his cell phone from people asking for drugs, court heard.

Faulkner denied the defence’s request for a conditional discharge, which would have meant that Delafosse would not receive a criminal record.

He has no past convictions.

Faulkner said a conditional discharge is only warranted in a drug trafficking case under exceptional circumstances, and that this case did not qualify.

Faulkner imposed a 10-year firarms ban and ordered that the $290 cash and drug paraphernalia be forfeited.