An individual, Tudor Donciu, who had imported 64 kilograms of cocaine into Quebec four years ago, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday morning at the Montreal courthouse.
This sentence, pronounced by Judge Pierre Dupras of the Court of Quebec, is a little shorter than what the prosecution was asking for, namely 11 years of imprisonment.
Donciu, 36, and an accomplice, Patrick Simionescu, 30, were arrested on April 2, 2019 in a building on rue Saint-Urbain by investigators from the Joint Investigation Unit against Organized Crime (UMECO) of C Division (Quebec) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The two men thought they would find cocaine hidden in shelf drawers arrived by container from Mexico, but they had the surprise of their lives when they discovered brown sugar instead.
What Donciu and Simionescu did not know was that border services agents had found the drugs five days prior and notified their federal police colleagues.
They then replaced the white powder with brown sugar and carried out a controlled delivery by installing a new seal on the goods and equipment allowing them to be tracked remotely, to intercept conversations and to know when and where the products would be unpacked.
Donciu testified during his trial and said he was importing illegally obtained goods, but not drugs, and that he believed what he was to receive on April 2, 2019 was tobacco.
He had also stated that he was to receive $500 to recover the goods, but Judge Dupras did not believe him.
Simionescu, 30, from Laval, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in 2021 and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
