CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION LABEL INCREASES JAIL TIME

Drug Gang Leader and Associate Have Sentences Extended for Roles In
Organized Crime

The head of an Okanagan drug gang was sentenced on Monday to 10 years
in jail, with two of those years specifically related to his role in a
criminal organization.

Thomas Fraser and his associate Jason Herrick, both of Kelowna, were
the first people in B.C. convicted of committing crimes for the
benefit of a criminal organization.

Fraser, who has been in jail since his 2007 arrest, was sentenced to
eight years for trafficking and two for his role in a criminal
organization.

Once his pre-trial credit is factored in, he will serve an additional
three and a half years on top of the time already served, for a total
of 10 years, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoff Barrow said in Kelowna
Monday.

He was already serving a fiveyear trafficking sentence on an earlier
conviction in Penticton. Herrick, who has been out on bail, was
sentenced to four and a half years total, including three and a half
for cocaine trafficking and one for working as part of the drug gang.

Crown prosecutor John Walker had been seeking 16 years for Fraser,
including 11 for trafficking and five for the criminal organization
conviction. He sought 11 for Herrick, with eight for trafficking and
three years on the gang conviction.

Barrow ruled earlier that Fraser and Herrick were guilty not only of
trafficking but also of working for the unnamed criminal
organization.

"I am satisfied that the evidence establishes that Mr. Fraser
knowingly instructed others to commit the offences in question for the
benefit of the criminal organization," Barrow said in his January ruling.

"I accept that Mr. Fraser was the leader of this organization and that
as such he regarded the money generated through the cocaine
trafficking as his money. The offences committed at Mr. Fraser's
direction however benefited both him and other members of the
organization, and thus the organization itself. In some cases
trafficking was carried out by members of the organization who were in
turn paid for doing so by Mr. Fraser."

Federal prosecutors in B.C. have tried unsuccessfully to get
convictions against members of the Hells Angels on similar charges.
The conviction of both Fraser and Herrick on the criminal organization
counts were hailed as a landmark at the time.

Fraser, Herrick and several others were charged after a massive
undercover operation in 2006 that culminated in their arrests the
following year.

Police intercepted hundreds of calls between the two men and others
who were either workers or customers of their lucrative cocaine business.

Barrow said the overwhelming evidence, which also included
surveillance and cocaine seizures, proved that Fraser and Herrick were
not only traffickers, but clearly working on behalf of their own
criminal organization.

"The inescapable implication is that members of the organization were
generating a profit on the resale of the cocaine," Barrow wrote.

He said ledgers found during one of the police searches documented pay
to some of Fraser's workers, as well as drug debts and amounts of
product that had been provided or sold.

Conversations captured on wiretap also implicated the accused in
organized crime, he said.

"Mr. Fraser himself explained the relationship between the individuals
and the organization succinctly in a conversation he had with Mr.
Herrick on August 9, 2006 ... In that call Mr. Fraser was anxious that
Mr. Herrick, and others, collect the money that is owed to them. He
explained that: 'Otherwise there's not gonna be any money to be shared
with any of you guys. I'll go back to my old ways and you guys can all
go f-----g work for 7-Eleven.'"

Barrow said Herrick clearly "understood. I have no doubt that all of
the members of the organization understood as well."