'Opportunistic predator': Judge sentences dial-a-dope dealer to 5 years

A mid-level drug dealer in Yellowknife's dial-a-dope drug ring was handed a five-year prison sentence Friday morning.

Last October, Bonita Bohnet, 39, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine and trafficking fentanyl. She had been charged in 2016 with these and three other drug-related offences as part of a larger RCMP drug investigation, dubbed Project Green Manalishi. The three other charges have been stayed.

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Bohnet and more than a dozen others were swept up in the 11-month RCMP drug investigation, including the arrest of thedrug ring's head, Norman Hache. As a result, police seized 1,200 fentanyl pills, two kilograms of cocaine, 11 litres of liquid cocaine, and $75,000 in cash.

Hache's drug ring moved seven to eight ounces of cocaine per day, mostly within Yellowknife and Fort Resolution, according to the agreed statement of facts.

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Bohnet was arrested on April 14, 2016, while leaving Hache's residence. Police found her with 12.9 grams of cocaine, 27.7 grams of psilocybin, $380 in cash and four phones.

She was described in court as a mid- to high-level operative in the dial-a-dope drug network. She supplied drugs to street-level dealers and sometimes operated the phones herself.

Addictions, mental-health problems

A week earlier, Bohnet told the court of changes she's made in her life since her arrest. She received treatment in Alberta, where she was diagnosed with ADHD, cocaine-use disorder and anxiety disorder. She said she continues counselling in Yellowknife, attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, does yoga, paints and maintains steady employment.

"When I was happy I took cocaine, when I was sad, I took fentanyl," she said in court at the time.

Because Bohnet had been acting under the influence of these undiagnosed mental-health disorders, her lawyer, Peter Harte, had recommended she be given a four-year sentence. The Crown pushed for five years.

"It was greed, pure and simple," said Crown prosecutor Duane Praught said at the time.

'Opportunistic predators'

In delivering her sentence, N.W.T. Supreme Court Justice Karan Shaner acknowledged Bohnet was highly addicted to cocaine and used fentanyl on a daily basisprior to her arrest and that she appears to be working hard to better herself since then.

But Shaner weighed this against a strong denunciation of drug dealing: she called dealers such as Bohnet "opportunistic predators."

"They are there to make money off people's vulnerability," she said.

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She sentenced Bohnet to five years in prison, and was given 13 days credit for time served.

Bohnet was clearly nervous, fidgeting and rocking back and forth while Shaner spoke.

"You seem to be making peace with who you are and your past," the judge told Bohnet after delivering her sentence.

"I hope you will be able to use what you have learned and what you now know to move ahead positively. I wish you the best on your journey."

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