A 48-year-old man from northern B.C. has been convicted for his role in a cocaine bust in Halifax two years ago.
Darcy Peter Bailey of Fort St. John was found guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to traffic cocaine, and attempted possession for the purpose of trafficking, The Chronicle Herald reported on Thursday (Aug. 20).
Bailey will be sentenced in November, and is currently out on bail and living in B.C., according to the report.
Bailey was arrested June 9, 2018, after more than 150 kilograms of cocaine was seized from the container ship Arica in the Port of Halifax.
He and another convicted conspirator, Matthew Ross Lambert of Richmond, B.C., were stopped by police at a nearby beach, and found with diving gear and an underwater propulsion device, the Chronicle Herald reported.
At trial, prosecutors argued the two men were tracking the ship’s voyage and knew specific details about its sea chest, where the cocaine was stashed. They argued the two men planned to retrieve the drugs while the ship was docked in Montreal, but that those plans went awry due to bad weather, which forced them to try again in Halifax, according to the report.
Defence lawyers argued the men were diving for algae as part of Bailey’s business, and that the Crown failed to prove they had agreed to import the drugs and knew that the drugs were on the ship, the Chronicle Herald reported.
However, court heard that Bailey messaged a woman before leaving Montreal about “big plans in the works” to collect a “$4-million score”, of which $500,000 was to be his. He later told the woman to delete the message, according to the report.
Judge Elizabeth Buckle had downgraded charges of drug trafficking against Bailey and Lambert to attempted trafficking, according to the report, while three other charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking against Bailey were dismissed in January of this year, according to the Halifax court registry.
Judge Buckle ruled that while the two men never had possession of the cocaine, she was nevertheless satisfied that they tried to take possession of the drugs, the Chronicle Herald reported.
