More than six years after he was first arrested for his involvement in a dial-a-dope operation in Chilliwack, Constatinos Gus Anthony was finally sentenced.
Anthony, 56, is one of four charged after Chilliwack RCMP executed search warrants at his home at 10063 Woods Rd. back in 2015.
Also charged was his partner Dina Anthony, Jamie Leanne Rogers, and Bryan Leslie Schapansky.
READ MORE: Chilliwack dial-a-dopers peddled heroin
At his sentencing hearing in BC Supreme Court in Chilliwack on May 3, federal Crown counsel James Patterson outlined the delays from the 2015 charges to the 2021 sentencing.
“Mr. Anthony was arrested on March 11, 2015,” Patterson told Justice Peter Edelmann. “The first information was filed Jan. 15, 2016. He was ordered to stand trial on May 19, 2017. The first trial was scheduled January 2018 but was adjourned. The second was February 2019 but was adjourned. The third was Jan. 20, 2020, also adjourned. The fourth in May 2020 but that was cancelled when counsel for Crown and Mr. Anthony worked out a resolution.”
Anthony pleaded guilty to two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of illegal possession of a firearm. He originally faced a total of 14 charges.
When police raided his Woods Road home, police seized 13.45 grams of MDMA (ecstasy) in powdered form, 365.64 grams of TFMPP (an ecstasy alternative), 570 tablets of MDMA and TFMP, digital scales, score sheets, cutting agents, and dime bags.
Also seized were four firearms, one shotgun and three rifles. Crown put the total value of the drugs at a wide range in value between $9,970 and $24,650 depending on wholesale or street level dealing.
Crown was asking for a sentence of three years in jail, but Justice Edelmann gave Anthony a conditional sentence of two years less a day with a mandatory lifetime firearms prohibition.
(*Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story stated Anthony was sentenced to two years jail. The Progress regrets the error.)
Anthony was convicted of causing an animal to continue to be in distress in 2009 and fined $100, according to Court Services Online. He was also charged with drug trafficking in Port Coquitlam back in 2004 and ordered to stand trial in BC Supreme Court.
Rogers was sentenced to six months in jail for her part in the operation, specifically for selling heroin by the ounce to an undercover officer on more than one occasion. And Schapansky was sentenced to two years in jail for also selling heroin and a Taser to undercover officers.
READ MORE: Chilliwack woman gets six months in jail for selling heroin by the ounce
READ MORE: Chilliwack drug dealer sentenced to two years jail
Dina and Gus Anthony had numerous court appearances over the intervening years since first charged, many involved them pleading financial hardship and an inability to access legal aid.
In the years since charges and two sentences, Dina Anthony has been involved with continued alleged drug trafficking.
In September 2019 she and convicted drug dealer Antonio Nolasco-Padia were arrested in Banff National Park when they tried to flee a traffic stop. After running over a spike belt, driving into oncoming traffic and attempting a carjacking, the search of the vehicle turned up 50 tablets of suspected fentanyl, 30 grams of methamphetamine, five grams of cocaine along with a loaded, prohibited handgun.
READ MORE: Chilliwack drug dealers busted in Banff National Park by Alberta RCMP
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