Two men were charged in one of Edmonton's first major fentanyl busts. A decade later, they've finally been sentenced

In January 2016, Edmonton police called local media to the atrium of the downtown headquarters to show off a then-unique drug bust. Arranged on a table for the cameras was a colourful collection of pills, powders and lab equipment.

The name of this worrying new drug? Fentanyl.

“All users need to be aware of the dangers involved in the purchase and use of black market pills,” then-Insp. Dwayne Lakusta told reporters. “Parents need to educate their kids on the dangers of taking one of these small pills. One of these small pills can result in death.”

Nearly 10 years and thousands of deaths later, the news conference seems like a relic from a simpler time. But until this week, the court case against the men who ran the drug lab was very much a thing of the present.

On Monday, Court of King’s Bench Justice Kent Teskey sentenced both Anthony Neville and Eric MacDonnell to eight years in prison for manufacturing and trafficking the drug — just nine days before the 10th anniversary of the pair’s New Year’s Eve 2015 arrest. At the time, police billed the bust as the largest fentanyl seizure in Edmonton’s history.

Teskey did not elaborate on the reasons for the decade-spanning delay Tuesday — though in a previous decision he found “upwards of seven years” could be attributed to the accused, who pursued multiple pre-trial applications and changes of counsel. He concluded Neville and MacDonnell’s Charter right to be tried within 30 months, established in the Supreme Court’s landmark Jordan decision, had not been not breached.

“I find that by 2024, the defence had largely adopted the attitude of ’embracing delay,'” Teskey said.

Caught green-handed

Neville and MacDonnell ran a fentanyl production operation out of home in south Edmonton. When police arrested them, each had green dye on their hands — similar to the dye used to colour the pills — and carried keys to a room that contained a pill press and precursor chemicals. Police seized more than 5,800 fentanyl tablets worth $232,000. Some were disguised as other drugs.

The two were convicted after a trial in June. In between, the men pursued Charter challenges of the initial search, changed lawyers multiple times and fought an application to run their trials separately. Between 2022 and 2023, the case was repeatedly adjourned “due to the illness of defence counsel and scheduling difficulties” Teskey wrote, during which time the accused agreed to waive some of the delays.

Neville and MacDonnell spent most of the last 10 years free on bail. Their lawyers said they largely moved on with their lives, starting families, finding legitimate employment and involving themselves in their communities.

Teskey revoked their release in July after Neville made a last minute bid to change lawyers at an aborted sentencing hearing. With the standard one-and-a-half to one credit for time in pretrial custody, the two earned 249 days toward their sentence.

Pills never sold: defence

When sentencing resumed last week, the two men told court how they’ve changed in the decade since police busted the lab. Neville, for one, talked about becoming a father.

“Being a dad became my entire identity,” he said from the prisoners’ box as family and friends watched from the packed courtroom. “I’m devastated that something from so long ago has taken me away from the people who need me the most.”

Wholesale fentanyl trafficking in Alberta carries a nine-year “starting point” sentence. Teskey noted a starting point is not legally binding but rather a framework for helping sentencing judges decide on a punishment.

Federal Crown prosecutor Kurtis Streeper urged Teskey to go well beyond that for both men, asking for 16 years for Neville and 15 for MacDonnell. He said the two produced thousands of pills for no reason other than greed.

That sentence would have been in line with that of Jonathan Loyie, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for a fentanyl “super-lab” after pleading guilty earlier this year, as well as Jonathan Sunstrum, the former Calgary mayoral candidate who got 16 years for selling a hundred times more fentanyl.

Teskey subjected Streeper to a barrage of questions, asking him what MacDonnell and Neville had done to merit a sentence beyond the starting point.

“I’m not to visit all of the ills of fentanyl on these two accused,” he said. “I have to sentence them for the very serious crimes they’ve committed, but no more than that.”

Teskey added the two were active when fentanyl’s dangers weren’t as well understood as they are now.

Defence lawyers Lance McClean and Peter Sankoff asked Teskey to go below the starting point. Sankoff said the Crown’s ask was “out of line” given there is “not an iota” of evidence any of the pills were ever sold.

“How can we prove the operation sold a single pill? We can’t,” he said. “There’s no evidence of that.”

Teskey settled on the eight-year sentences after considering the case law and each man’s personal factors.

He said sentences closer to 16 years typically involve “exceptionally” high quantities of drugs, evidence of leadership in an organized crime group, the use of weapons and specific plans to target at-risk populations. “While the offence before the court is severe, it falls demonstrably below the seriousness of these cases.”

Teskey said an 11-year sentence would be appropriate, but knocked off two years for the “significant rehabilitation and remorse” the men have shown, plus another year for a Charter breach over delays the men suffered in access to legal counsel.

Court heard Neville continues to face a separate drug trafficking charge in a different case.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

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@jonnywakefield.bsky.social

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