A Chilliwack drug dealer with a long history of fleeing from police was convicted of dangerous driving and flight from police in Vancouver provincial court on Wednesday (July 14) for an incident from January.
The early morning vehicle chase overnight awoke some residents in Garrison Crossing who reported hearing fast moving vehicles and saw as many as a dozen police vehicles on Sappers Way at approximately 2 a.m. on Jan. 3.
“I witnessed the car fly by the house followed by between 10 to 15, primarily police SUVs in tow, over the next three to five minutes,” one witness told The Progress. “He spun out/crashed at Sappers and Watson. Heard the police yell ‘put your hands up’ and muffled resistance.”
The man fleeing police was Antonio Dillan Nolasco-Padia, 24, who has an extensive criminal record for drug trafficking, assaulting a peace officer and flight from a peace officer. He also has several convictions for driving while prohibited.
In addition to the two charges he was convicted of, Nolasco-Padia faced four more charges for the January incident including wilfully resisting a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer and two counts of driving while prohibited.
A stay of proceedings was issued for those counts, and he was handed a nine-month conditional sentence order followed by one year of probation and a three-year criminal driving prohibition.
Nolasco-Padia was in the news in 2017 when he was wanted by the Chilliwack RCMP in connection with an August 18, 2017 drug bust. The then 21-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking in September 2018.
Then in 2019, he was busted in Banff National Park with 55-year-old Dina Anthony after fleeing the scene of a traffic stop. He was allegedly driving the vehicle that was later stopped by a spike belt. He then continued in that vehicle into oncoming traffic where he tried to steal another vehicle by force before they were both arrested, according to RCMP at the time.
The vehicle contained fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and a prohibited handgun.
After the Garrison Crossing incident on Jan. 3, 2021, Nolasco-Padia was charged with dangerous operation of a conveyance, flight from police, wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer, assaulting peace officer, and two counts of driving while prohibited.
He is next due in court Jan. 11 for a scheduled bail hearing.
READ MORE: Chilliwack man charged in 2017 drug bust pleads guilty, released on time served
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READ MORE: Chilliwack drug dealers busted in Banff National Park by Alberta RCMP
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