AVOID EASY RETIREMENT MONEY, OFFENDER WARNED

A visiting territorial court judge has sentenced a local drug courier
to a 7 1/2-year penitentiary term in what's been referred to as the
Yukon's largest drug bust.

While the sentence would be a total of eight years, Jacob Lee, 47,
was given credit for the months he has spent in custody prior to
being convicted.

On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Donald Luther agreed to the proposed
sentence for Lee. The man had pleaded guilty to charges of
trafficking marijuana and trafficking cocaine.

"It's most important you get your life together," Luther told Lee,
reminding him he could be close to 60 years old when he's released from prison.

It's important that Lee not take the "easy", criminal way to make
money, even for retirement, Luther said.

The sentence was suggested through a joint submission by Crown
prosecutor Eric Marcoux and defence lawyer John Conroy, but before
reaching his conclusion, Luther brought forward concerns about the proposal.

Lee was arrested last February after the RCMP exercised a search
warrant on his van after he was stopped on the Alaska Highway.

Amid restaurant supplies in the van, a total of 5.2 kilograms of
cocaine and 45 kilograms of marijuana were seized along with cell
phones and a cash counter.

The court heard Wednesday Lee was to be paid $75,000 for bringing the
drugs from British Columbia to the Yukon.

At the time, Lee was serving parole as part of a sentence, originally
from the United States, for bringing heroin into the country. His
20-year sentence had been transferred to Canada and was scheduled to
expire in 2013.

Luther will have to serve his original term as well as Wednesday's
term consecutively, which means it could be close to 2020 before he's released.

While he may be released on parole after serving two thirds of his
sentence, he will not be eligible for early parole because this marks
his second federal term, Conroy told the court.

While Luther agreed to the proposed term, he also said he believes a
10-year term would be a more appropriate sentence.

When he brought forward his concerns though, both Conroy and Marcoux
defended their proposed sentence.

Conroy noted Lee will also be required to serve the remainder of his
previous sentence in penitentiary and has been in a high-security
section of the Whitehorse Correctional Centre since his arrest. That
has meant Lee hasn't had access to programs that are available to
most remand inmates.

Lee has also co-operated fully with police, admitting his guilt early on.

Marcoux also stressed the Crown is satisfied Lee was operating as a
courier and not a distributor of the drugs.

While a judge can opt not to go ahead with a joint sentence proposal,
Luther noted the lawyers had addressed his concerns and that the
sentence is not bringing the administration of justice into disrepute
and does meet the public interest.

Further charges of possession of cocaine and marijuana were stayed,
while trafficking and possession charges against Frank Tse, who was
in the van with Lee, were also stayed.

Lee told police Tse had no involvement in the drug operation and
there was no evidence against Tse.