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A drug dealer who sold “spitballs” of fentanyl and heroin and rocks of cocaine to the most vulnerable addicts on the North Shore will go to jail for almost three more years on top of a sentence he is already serving.
Arash Kardan, 24, who ran a dial-a-dope operation in North Vancouver in 2019 and 2020, was handed the sentence Nov. 8 by Judge Robert Hamilton in North Vancouver provincial court after pleading guilty to possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking. Kardan also pleaded guilty to assaulting a peace officer and resisting a peace officer for getting into physical fights with police during several arrests.
Crown prosecutor Lisa Dumbrell told the judge during a sentencing hearing that North Vancouver RCMP began surveillance on Kardan in September of 2019 as part of an investigation into drug offences. Police used tracking devices on both vehicles and phones to watch as Kardan drove from Vancouver to the North Shore every day, stopping at a Lonsdale apartment, then making numerous short stops consistent with a dial-a-dope operation.
On Dec. 18, 2019, police moved in to arrest Kardan at Capilano Mall. When Kardan saw officers coming, he attempted to swallow the contents of a pill bottle, said Dumbrell. A search of Kardan subsequently turned up a second pill bottle with 13 packages of rock and powder cocaine. Mall security guards also picked up two packages of fentanyl from the floor where Kardan was arrested. Police seized Kardan’s cell phone which rang constantly, with three customers attempting to place orders for rocks of cocaine in a 20-minute period, said Dumbrell.
Kardan was released and the larger drug investigation continued.
In March 2020, police watched Kardan coming and going from trails in Mahon Park with a black bag. Police searched the bag Kardan had hidden in the park, seizing pre-packaged amounts of drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and MDMA.
Kardan was arrested two more times during the investigation, once on West Esplanade on May 7, 2020, and another time near 6th Street and Ridgeway Avenue on June 20, 2020. In both cases, police searches turned up individually wrapped packages of cocaine inside the cars he was travelling in. In both cases, Kardan also tried to run away from arresting officers – including striking one officer in the face with a bag and running away in handcuffs.
The total value of the drugs seized from Kardan by police was slightly more than $7,400.
In handing down a 34-month jail sentence, Hamilton noted Kardan was selling fentanyl to vulnerable addicts at a time when drug overdoses have been killing users in record numbers.
B.C. has “one of the worst, if not the worst, fentanyl abuse problems in Canada,” said Hamilton. “It’s killing drug addicts at an ever-increasing rate.”
Dial-a-dope drug lines like the one Kardan operated have exacerbated the problem, said the judge, by making access to drugs “as easy as ordering pizza.”
Kardan’s sentence will run consecutive to a provincial sentence he is already serving for threatening and beating his drug delivery driver.
In total, Kardan will serve approximately 45 months in jail, said Hamilton.
The judge also ordered forfeiture of the Toyota Echo used to deliver the drugs, and cash Kardan was carrying when he was arrested.
