Pubdate: Thu, 05 Apr 2001
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2001 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaSun/home.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Kevin Martin, Calgary Sun

HEROIN DEALERS' SENTENCES TOO TOUGH

The "hostile environment" a Calgary judge showed two heroin dealers for 
bringing the drug in from the coast got a bit friendlier yesterday.

The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a written ruling, said Justice Scott 
Brooker was wrong to slap Cuong Hoang and Trung Dung Thach with three-year 
sentences.

The top court said Brooker erred in not giving enough weight to a joint 
submission for a lighter sentence and the pair's decision to abandon an 
appeal on a related case.

Brooker rejected the suggestion of 18-month terms for Hoang and Thach 
because of earlier Court of Appeal rulings for heroin dealers.

Hoang, 31, and Thach, 24, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to 
traffic heroin. Both were already serving sentences of five years and four 
years respectively for their parts in a cocaine distribution operation. As 
part of their deal, the two agreed to abandon appeals of their convictions 
for cocaine trafficking.

Justice Carole Conrad said the global sentences the two men got under the 
deal -- 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 years each -- should not have been deviated from by 
Brooker.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens