Courtenay Serah Cross was sentenced for a pair of drug charges, including fentanly trafficking, following a January, 2017 RCMP raid at her Albert St. apartment unit. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW) 

By Ian Holmes

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Jun 20, 2020 | 11:38 AM

NANAIMO — A woman with a long criminal history was jailed for three years for a street level drug trafficking operation.

Courtenay Serah Cross, 44, was convicted of possessing and trafficking more than eight grams of heroin and the lethal opioid fentanyl, along with a simple cocaine possession charge. The drugs, as well as weapons and cash, were found in a Jan. 28, 2017 raid of her apartment on Albert St.

She pleaded guilty to both offences and was sentenced by BC Supreme Court Justice Paul Riley in Nanaimo on Friday, June 19, who accepted a joint submission from Crown Counsel and the defence.

Justice Riley outlined facts of the offender’s troubled youth just south of Nanaimo in Cedar, which included alcoholic parents, drinking alcohol by the age of five and using hard drugs as a teenager.

Heroin overdoses claimed the lives of two of her teenaged friends.

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Cross didn’t graduate high school and relied on the sex trade and selling drugs to make ends meet and feed her substance abuse issues, court was told.

Justice Riley said Cross deserved her longest prison sentence to date, referencing nearly 30 prior convictions, several involving drug trafficking.

He said Cross had only sporadically attempted to get clean, pointing to a pre-sentence report stating Cross severed ties with drug counsellors years prior.

“By not dealing with her drug problem and continuing to distribute dangerous and addictive drugs to other people, Ms. Cross is only expanding the scope of misery caused by these substances to other people,” Justice Riley said.

Cross was supposed to be sentenced exactly one year prior on June 19, 2019, her birthday. However, she failed to show up for court, an arrest warrant was issued and she wasn’t arrested until last December.

One year later, she was sentenced on her birthday.

Cross briefly apologized in her appearance by video.

“I just used drugs and more drugs, prescription drugs to try and get rid of my anxiety and deal with the shame of not showing up (for court) so that led to more drug use,” Cross said.

Her jail sentence was trimmed to 27 months due to credit for time already served.

Two other charges against Cross in relation to the Albert St. bust were dropped.

Cross was handed a lifetime firearms ban and ordered to provide a DNA sample.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes