HEROIN DEALERS' SENTENCES TOO TOUGH

The "hostile environment" a Calgary judge showed two heroin dealers for
bringing the drug in from the coast got a bit friendlier yesterday.

The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a written ruling, said Justice Scott
Brooker was wrong to slap Cuong Hoang and Trung Dung Thach with three-year
sentences.

The top court said Brooker erred in not giving enough weight to a joint
submission for a lighter sentence and the pair's decision to abandon an
appeal on a related case.

Brooker rejected the suggestion of 18-month terms for Hoang and Thach
because of earlier Court of Appeal rulings for heroin dealers.

Hoang, 31, and Thach, 24, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to
traffic heroin. Both were already serving sentences of five years and four
years respectively for their parts in a cocaine distribution operation. As
part of their deal, the two agreed to abandon appeals of their convictions
for cocaine trafficking.

Justice Carole Conrad said the global sentences the two men got under the
deal -- 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 years each -- should not have been deviated from by
Brooker.