A Canmore man will spend the next 90 days in jail after pleading guilty in Canmore Provincial Court to trafficking cocaine.
Olivier Gouin made the guilty plea on Jan. 4 in front of Judge P. Barley, who handed down the three-month jail term because it was a joint recommendation of Crown prosecutor Jeremy Newton and defence counsel Tyson Dahlem.
Newton said the charges resulted from an undercover operation by RCMP in the summer of 2015. On Aug. 2, 2015, he said, an undercover member approached another individual, who was not named, to purchase cocaine at the Canmore Hotel. That person then approached Gouin to obtain the cocaine.
“Canmore RCMP were conducting drug operations targeting drug trafficking and suspected drug trafficking locations,” he said. “The officer asked for $200 worth of cocaine and Mr. Gouin said he could only acquire $100.”
Newton told the judge the accused went outside with the money and returned with a baggie containing one gram of cocaine and $20 and gave them to the undercover officer.
As a result of the undercover operation, Gouin’s residence was subsequently searched, but the Crown said no evidence was found that the accused was a drug dealer, and the Aug. 2 transaction was “social trafficking.”
“This is a joint recommendation of 90 days on the basis that this was essentially social trafficking,” Newton said. “He was brought into the situation in the bar to help some people find some drugs.”
Dahlem told court the 31-year-old has family support and plans to address his substance abuse issue, which is the underlying problem in many drug trafficking offences, when he gets out of custody.
“As with so many people, what brought Mr. Gouin before the courts is substance abuse,” he said.
