A man who ran a dial-a-dope operation out of his parents' North Vancouver home has been handed an 18-month conditional sentence by a B.C. Supreme judge, with the first year to be served under house arrest.
Amir-Ali Heidari, 23, sold crack cocaine to support his $150 per day OxyContin addiction, stashing the drugs in a safe that he kept in his bedroom.
Heidari was nabbed after being put under surveillance by police between August and December 2010, when he was observed in 10 different "hand-in-hand transactions" with known drug users.
On Jan. 19, 2011, police stopped his car. They searched it and found no drugs but seized two cellphones. Within the next four hours, there were 16 phone calls from people police said were known drug users. Over the next week, there were 71 missed calls to the phone - indicative of a dial-a-dope operation, police said.
On the day they arrested Heidari, police searched his parents' home - where Heidari lives - under a search warrant. They seized a safe in his bedroom containing several baggies of crack cocaine, scales, a medicine bottle, scissors and $885 in cash. Police also seized another 33 grams of cocaine worth about $2,700 and $2,000 cash.
Crown counsel in the case asked for a jail term of 12 months.
But Heidari's defence lawyer asked for a conditional sentence, arguing his client has taken steps to turn his life around. Since his arrest, Heidari has quit taking OxyContin, enrolled in a methadone program, and started a vocational training course.
