Pubdate: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB) Copyright: 2005 The Calgary Sun Contact: http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67 Author: Kevin Martin DRUG DEALER SPARED JAIL BY ALBERTA OIL BOOM Alberta's booming oil industry helped turn a drug dealer's attention from illicit profit to legitimate gains, his lawyer said yesterday. Defence counsel Ed O'Neill said Matthew John Vancamp is now making so much cash lawfully, he won't be lured back into the easy money of drug dealing. "He's working so hard he's put 10% down on two houses," O'Neill told a Calgary court about his client's successful endeavours in northern Alberta. "He does not need the money, the work is so prolific in Fort McMurray now," O'Neill told Judge Rosemary Nation. He was responding to suggestions by the Crown that Vancamp should be sent to a federal prison to deter him and others from allowing greed to draw them to the drug trade. Prosecutor Joe Mercier had sought a three-year prison term noting Vancamp's only reason for selling cocaine was greed. "He is not a user and appears motivated by profit," he said. "We need to send a strong message to people in Mr. Vancamp's situation ... that dealing in such drugs will not be tolerated." Vancamp, 29, was arrested May 18, 2003, on a gravel road west of Didsbury when police noticed a speeding vehicle. Officers found 29 individual packages of cocaine, plus 119 grams of marijuana in his car. Mercier said Vancamp's lack of an addiction, and three prior drug convictions were enough to justify a prison term. But Nation accepted O'Neill's submission that his client no longer poses a risk to return to the drug trade. Nation handed Vancamp a 23-month conditional sentence, the first 12 months of which must be served under house arrest. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin