GANG LEADER, A 'SMART, CAUTIOUS' DRUG DEALER, SENTENCED TO FIVE MORE
YEARS

The local leader of the Independent Soldiers gang was a smart and
careful drug dealer who efficiently sold significant quantities of
cocaine, a judge said Friday.

Jayme Russell was not a drug user who sold to feed an addiction.
Rather, he was a smart, cautious businessman, B.C. Supreme Court
Justice Richard Blair noted.

Russell always kept a distance from the cocaine he sold, although he
collected the money, negotiated the deals and arranged locations,
Blair said. One time, he even arranged for a cash-counting machine to
be on hand so he could count $18,700 when he sold undercover officers
500 grams of cocaine.

Russell used text messaging to do business, to avoid having his
conversations intercepted. He was snared largely because of the work
of another low-level drug dealer who agreed to work with the RCMP as
an agent.

"For him, the drug trade was a business from which he earned
substantial sums of money," Blair said, noting that was a factor the
court had to consider when imposing a sentence. Blair jailed Russell
for five years on top of a two-year prison term imposed by another
judge in a different drug case in May.

Sheldon Tate, Russell's defence lawyer, argued the previous
trafficking conviction should be considered part of one continuous
transaction with the more recent drug offences. He asked for a total
sentence for all the offences of no more than four years.

Blair rejected that, saying Russell's first conviction was for a crime
in 2007, when he agreed to sell undercover RCMP officers one kilogram
of cocaine.

The judge said Russell's wife and young daughter have moved from
Kamloops to the Lower Mainland, where his parents live and where
Russell expects he will live when released from prison. His parents
have agreed to support him in building a more productive life, he said.

Society can only hope Russell will be rehabilitated, the judge said,
especially considering the damage he has caused.

Russell was arrested after the RCMP targeted mid-to upper-level drug
dealers in Kamloops. Four others were also charged. One pleaded guilty
and will be sentenced in January; three will face trials.