KINGPIN IN DRUGS GETS OVER FIVE YEARS

A 42-year-old Charlottetown man described by police as a key figure in
an operation that imported large quantities of cocaine and other drugs
into P.E.I. from Nova Scotia for sale by a network of street-level
dealers has been sentenced to over five years in a federal
correctional facility.

Derreck Dean Huggan was sentenced Tuesday in provincial court to serve
6 1/2 years behind bars for conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.

Provincial Court Judge Nancy Orr sentenced Huggan to a further 6 1/2
years for conspiracy to traffic in the painkiller Hydromorphone.

Huggan received terms of 3 1/2 years each on charges of conspiracy to
traffic in hashish and conspiracy to traffic in Ecstasy, a stimulant.

On top of that, Huggan received 2 1/2 years for possession of
marijuana for the purposes of trafficking and a sentence of 14 months
for indictable cocaine possession.

Twelve months will be subtracted from each of those sentences as
credit for time served while awaiting disposition of his case.

All six sentences will run concurrently.

In addition to the time he will spend in custody, Huggan was
prohibited from the possession of firearms, explosives, crossbows and
ammunition for life.

Crown counsel Erin Mitchell and defence counsel Jim Hornby jointly
recommended the sentences imposed by the court.

In giving affect to their joint recommendation, Orr expressed the hope
the sentences imposed Tuesday would be long enough to deter Huggan and
others from engaging in the drug trade.

The court was told Huggan and his associates arranged for the
transportation of wholesale quantities of cocaine, Hydromorphone,
cannabis resin and Ecstasy to P.E.I.

Those drugs were then distributed to a network of street-level drug
dealers.

Several of those engaged in street-level drug sales did so to pay off
large personal drug debts, it was indicated.

Huggan was kept under surveillance by police for a number of months
starting in 2005.

Police said Huggan became aware he was being watched and utilized
counter-surveillance measures in an effort to conceal his activities.

When police eventually raided Huggan's Orlebar Street residence and an
apartment he maintained elsewhere in the city they seized a quantity
of drugs, drug paraphernalia and $6,000 in cash.

A number of Huggan's associates have already been convicted and
sentenced to federal time. Others are awaiting the disposition of
their cases.