A street-level cocaine and heroin dealer who told his bail supervisor he'd like to work towards "world peace" will have to tackle that project from behind bars.
Thieu Hung Tran, 30, who sold cocaine and heroin in a North Shore dial-a-dope operation, was handed a 12-month sentence Sept. 19 after pleading guilty to two counts of drug trafficking.
Tran sold 7.27 grams of heroin and slightly more than two grams of cocaine to undercover RCMP officers on eight different dates between May and September of 2011. Prosecutor John Whyte put the value of the drugs at about $1,400. Most of the transactions happened in the parking lot of a North Vancouver McDonald's restaurant in the afternoon or early evening.
Tran's lawyer, David Forsyth, argued for leniency, saying many of his client's problems started after he was attacked by drunken youths and suffered head injuries.
"It's not the way he wants to live his life," said Forsyth. "He's not high up the food chain. It's a street-level transaction."
But Judge Doug Moss of the North Vancouver provincial court said a jail term is needed to deter others.
"You are an essential cog in the wheel," he told Tran, adding that dial-a-dope drug dealing is "a prolific crime in this community" that makes drugs more easily available in suburban centres. Moss was also unimpressed with Tran's world peace mission.
"I have no idea what you're talking about there," he said.
