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Fort Simpson woman brings nearly 250 grams of crack into RCMP detachment
After pleading guilty to drug charges, woman takes to stand in NWT Supreme Court to deny she was high-level dealer
“I would tell all the drug dealers to get off my island like it was mine. I was born and raised on that island.”
– Convicted Fort Simpson crack trafficker
The crack cocaine underworld in Fort Simpson was brought to light in some detail during a recent sentencing hearing in NWT Supreme Court.
A single mother pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking after she was caught with almost 250 grams of crack cocaine she brought into the local RCMP detachment while attending there on another matter.
The woman faces between a two-year conditional sentence and a three-year prison term, unless Justice Annie Piché determines another term is fit.
“The level of trafficking here is serious; wholesale trafficking in a small community,” said Crown Prosecutor Nakita McFadden. “While (the accused) has been stable in the community since her arrest, her potential for rehabilitation cannot overwhelm the sentencing analysis of today.”
In an unusual move, the accused took to the stand in the sentencing hearing to clarify the scope of her drug dealing business, as there is a legal difference for the judge to consider between a wholesale drug dealer and a commercial, or street-level, drug dealer.
CKLB is not naming the woman at this time as the judge needs to rule on a publication ban request, as there are minor children involved who were apprehended by authorities.
Under questioning by defence lawyer John Hale, the woman portrayed herself as a drug-addict who started off as a runner for a dealer — who would live in her house — until it was suggested she take over dealing herself.
She says her life went off the rails some time earlier, after she had a bad experience working for the GNWT.
“Well, I was drinking a lot, and when my (two younger) kids got apprehended, I really picked up on hard drugs. My addiction got really bad,” she testified, noting her father and older daughter also lived with her, surviving on $2,000 in child tax credits.
“I had a dealer living in my house selling crack, and I would just go and people would call to make an order for a piece or a couple pieces, and I would go and meet them.
“I think their boss knew that I was doing a good job running or whatever, and then asked me if I wanted to start me dealing and doing runs. I agreed to that, to help with my usage, my addiction … I was hurting. I was dope sick.”
She was connect with a supplier in Toronto she only called ‘Boo’ and he would send the illegal drugs by plane right into the Fort Simpson airport in a box of groceries.
She started small — two, three ounces at a time — and she would smoke her profits.
“I had two main runners. Folks lived next door to me, and we’re really good friends. One of them is now sober, the other one struggles with alcohol addiction, but, yeah, they helped me out, and in return, I fed them good,” the woman testified.
“I smoked them up all the time. Every time they’d come back, they’d stay around for a few hours, and we would just smoke and get high.”
Prosecutor McFadden cross-examined the woman, suggesting she was running her operation like a business and that she was worried about the competition.
“Yeah, you know what? I think you’re right, because I would tell all the drug dealers to get off my island like it was mine,” she said, referring to Fort Simpson’s geography. “I was born and raised on that island. They’re just visitors.”
The woman was also concerned over the sub-standard quality of the crack cocaine — “they just really have garbage … and ripping off our people.”
On December 15th, 2023 at approximately 2:15 pm, the woman attended the RCMP detachment in Fort Simpson to speak to police in relation to the unrelated criminal matter.
The woman testified she sat outside the band office in drinking from a mickey and was “pretty intoxicated when I got there.”
Upon arriving at the detachment, she was placed under arrest for the unrelated criminal matter.
When under arrest, the woman’s purse was searched, with officers finding drug paraphernalia, including steel wool, a glass pipe, a plastic bag, a scale, and 247 grams of crack cocaine.
Depending how it would be presented for sale, the drugs had a value up to $82,000.
Police later obtained a warrant to search her cell phone and discovered several text exchanges about prices, her ‘runners’ and best locations for sales.
Justice Piché will provide her decision on March 11.
