DRUG SAMPLES NO MATCH

Court Told Cocaine Found On Seven-year-old Can't Be Linked To Accused

A stash of crack cocaine found on a seven-year-old boy can't be linked to
the man accused of using the child as his "mule," a court was told yesterday.

Crown prosecutor Bob Sigurdson said a lab comparison of the boy's stash and
cocaine found in Kieng Nhuan (Ricky) Tran's bedroom showed the samples
didn't match.

Sigurdson told provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham the analysis completed
last Friday determine the two drug samples came from different sources.

As a result, the Crown could not establish the 2.7 grams police found on
the boy last August belonged to Tran, he said.

Sigurdson said there were other areas in the building both Tran and the boy
lived in -- including a seventh floor fire hose cabinet -- where cocaine
was found.

Reduced Offences

Tran, who had been charged with three counts of possession of narcotics for
the purpose of trafficking, pleaded guilty yesterday to three reduced offences.

Tran admitted to simple possession charges of cocaine, valium and codeine
after officers found the drugs in the bedroom he rented from the boy's parents.

Police were at the downtown apartment building because it was known as a
high-traffic drug dealing location, the prosecutor said.

They had stopped to question Tran when the boy appeared and was noticed to
be fidgeting with his pocket, he said.

Officers searched the boy and found the crack -- worth about $300 -- before
checking Tran's bedroom and finding other small amounts of three drugs.

Laboratory testing showed the method used to cook the crack cocaine was
different from that used to create the raw cocaine found in Tran's room,
Sigurdson said.

Both the prosecutor and defence lawyer Austin Nguyen suggested a one-day
jail term was appropriate since Tran already served the equivalent of a
three-month sentence.

One-Day Jail Term

Fradsham accepted the joint submission.

The boy and his two younger siblings were removed from the family home
after Tran's arrest and a subsequent bust of the children's father.

The trio were returned to their mother by a judge after she agreed to keep
them away from Tran and their father.