A low-level cocaine dealer caught up in high-level trafficking is a “hard working guy” who got in over his head, according to Daryl Michael Nagy’s lawyer.
Nagy, a 29-year-old journeyman painter and member of the Fallen Saints motorcycle club, had been selling cocaine to fund his addiction, Michael Nolin said during his client’s sentencing hearing in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
In late 2014, Noel Harder, the Fallen Saints vice-president turned police agent, introduced Nagy to a Vancouver drug trafficker who sold Nagy a kilogram of cocaine for re-sale in Saskatoon, according to an agreed statement of facts.
Saskatoon Police Services and the RCMP held a press conference to announce drug busts of Hells Angels members and associates on January 15, 2015.
On Tuesday, Nagy was the last person to be sentenced in connection with Project Forseti, the massive drug and gun investigation targeting the Fallen Saints and its connection with organized crime. Nagy received a four-year prison term after pleading guilty in May to conspiring to traffic cocaine, trafficking cocaine and possessing it for the purpose of trafficking, and possessing the proceeds of crime. Although the indictment included heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine in the conspiracy charge, federal Crown prosecutor Lynn Hintz clarified the offence only involved cocaine.
She said Harder, Nagy and Adam Harada met in October 2014 and discussed cocaine trafficking and future sales. The conversations were all secretly recorded by Harder, who was working as a police agent.
Harada delivered one kilogram of cocaine to Nagy, through drug couriers, the following month. Nagy brought the drugs to a stash house and sold a half-kilogram to Harder for $30,250.
In December 2014, Nagy told Harder he wanted to buy more cocaine from Harada. Harder gave Nagy $25,000 to pay off a drug debt to Harada.
Nagy actually owed Harder money for drugs, but Harder — when he became a police agent — transferred that debt to Harada, Nolin said.
He told court Harder got Nagy into the “recreational drug scene” and recruited him to be the biker club’s treasurer.
The Crown and defence jointly proposed a four-year sentence because it is on the high-end of the trafficking range for cocaine (between 18 months and four years) but still reflects Nagy’s guilty plea and his absence of a prior criminal record.
Justice Mona Dovell accepted the joint submission and ordered Nagy to make monthly payments of $500 to pay off the $30,250 in police money that Harder paid Nagy.
Before he was sentenced, Nagy thanked the justice system for forcing him away from a life of crime.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong and I take full responsibility,” he said.