West Kelowna drug dealer will be behind bars for 8 more years | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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West Kelowna drug dealer will be behind bars for 8 more years

Leslie John McCulloch, left, and Rebekka Rae White are pictured in this photo from Facebook.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK

KELOWNA -  A West Kelowna man who was busted in 2016 for a counterfeit drug operation will spend another eight years and 59 days behind bars.

Leslie McCulloch, 41, was sentenced July 24 for charges of production and possession of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking — both charges he pleaded guilty to at an earlier date.

In a joint submission earlier in the month, Crown counsel Oren Bick and defence lawyer Marshall Putnam suggested a total sentence of 10 years, less time served. McCulloch has already been incarcerated for 434 days, and he was credited time-and-a-half. That amounts to 651 days of credit and, ultimately, that was the reason for the eight and a half year sentence. He also faces a firearms ban and is required to give a DNA sample.

McCulloch had been the subject of a two-month-long surveillance operation in 2016 that was started when he was caught picking up a drug mixing machine.

On March 2, 2016, Mounties executed a search warrant at McCulloch's business, Kandy and Krome Kustoms, which was in the 2600-block of Auburn Crescent and his Petterson Road home. There they found score sheets, an estimated 500 'fake' Percocet and OxyContin pills, acetylfentanyl, two industrial pill presses capable of making 2,500 pills per hour and a chemical mixer. Police also found suspected acetylfentanyl in a shop vacuum. In total there was almost "a pound of raw material on hand," Bick said.

"There are two aggravating factors in this case," Bick said. "Under the (Controlled Drugs and Substance Act), it's the closeness to a school (Const. Neil Bruce middle school). Also, he was on parole."
McCulloch's criminal record is limited but serious, he added. 

"It's not the biggest clandestine lab busted in Kelowna, but not peanuts either," he said. "It’s a large amount that could produce a lot of pills."

Bick told the court that acetylfentanyl is one-sixth as potent as fentanyl, but at the time of the offense, dealers were making big money from counterfeiting pharmaceuticals and McCulloch was trying to cash in.

Just one of the pills found at the shop could fetch a price of $10 apiece wholesale or $30 on the street.

"The offense is as grave as a fentanyl dealer," said Bick. "It’s a harmful substance and it puts the life of its users at real risk."

While the notoriety of the case is that it's one of the first fentanyl busts in the region, McCulloch and the way he's comported himself in the wake of the arrest has also garnered some attention.

Although he tried to retract his guilty plea, he was set to be sentenced on Jan. 28. But when he was supposed to make an appearance in court a week prior on Jan. 21, he didn't show.

A Canada-wide arrest warrant was issued for McCulloch on Jan. 22.  A hearing on that breach will take place in September.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Kathy Michaels or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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