A Nanaimo man found at a house raided by RCMP has been found guilty by a Supreme Court justice of drug-related offences, including trafficking fentanyl.
Peter Anthony Alexander, 41 when tried last August, was found guilty on Sept. 25 in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo of four counts of possessing a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking – fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA, according to justice David M. Layton's ruling.
Charges were sworn in August 2022 and stem from a report of forcible confinement, aggravated assault and pointing a firearm, which served as a catalyst for the execution of a search warrant at an Athletic Street residence by the RCMP emergency response team on Aug. 2, 2022.
Police knocked down the front door, entered and found several people at the residence. Officers seized $1,820 in cash, suspected cannabis concentrate, methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, MDMA, and materials that are often mixed with drugs, including caffeine and bromazolam. The bulk of the drugs were found inside a skull-shaped container on the coffee table.
Alexander, who was addicted to methamphetamine, had been dating a woman who lived at the residence.
The accused took the stand during trial, stating that he "began to pull back" from dealing drugs a month before the raid as "he decided he could no longer handle [it]." He was facing another criminal charge and a person wielding a machete had tried to rob his girlfriend and another man. He told the court he had stopped taking calls to sell drugs, and if someone did call, "he would lead them on in a sense, and deflect the request."
The judge rejected the accused's claims he had stopped dealing drugs as text messages and calendar entries on the accused's phone suggested the contrary. The judge accepted police officer testimony that the calendar entries represented "electronic score sheets" about money owed by individuals. The amount of cash found in the raid also cast doubt, as the judge noted that social assistance payments wouldn't account for that amount of money, especially considering the accused's expensive drug habit.
"The evidence that I have accepted establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Alexander was in constructive possession of the drugs in the living room … and that he possessed them for the purpose of trafficking. Neither that evidence nor any gaps in it support a reasonable doubt as to whether he knew about or had some measure of control over these drugs, or whether he possessed them for the purpose of trafficking," the judge ruled.
Alexander was also found guilty of four counts of possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking in February 2022 in Port Alberni.
According to B.C. Court Services, Alexander's sentencing is set for Dec. 11.
