60-year-old Ted Cawley was sentenced to two years in prison in BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo after he pleaded guilty to a pair of drug trafficking charges. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

jail time

Judge hands Nanaimo drug trafficker federal prison sentence

Jan 28, 2021 | 5:31 AM

NANAIMO — An opioid addict was sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary in connection to a street level drug dealing operation in Nanaimo.

Todd Gerald John Cawley, 60, was sentenced on Wednesday, Jan 27 in BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo the same week the facts of his bust at the hands of local RCMP were revealed in court.

Cawley’s conviction for fentanyl and heroin trafficking related to several days of surveillance outside the offender’s Robarts St. apartment unit in Dec. 2017.

He was arrested following an apparent drug transaction outside a shopping centre in which Cawley handed off items to a driver in a truck. A search warrant at Cawley’s apartment unit netted more than 40 grams of hard drugs, including heroin mixed with fentanyl.

Drug paraphernalia and cash were also seized from Cawley’s apartment.

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The combined value of the drugs was conservatively estimated in the $6,000 range.

Supreme Court justice Andrew Majawa said Cawley’s sentence aligns with elevated jail tenures of 18 to 36 months for street level fentanyl dealing.

“Although the dangers were less well known in 2017, the dangers of the harm caused were known then,” justice Majawa said.

A record 46 people lost their lives in Nanaimo to fentanyl detected deaths in 2017, according to BC Coroners Service data.

Court was told an apologetic and remorseful Cawley intends to take advantage of drug treatment while in jail.

His lawyer Kelly Bradshaw told court Cawley formed a heroin addiction after being cut off from morphine prescribed following a motorcycle crash 15 years ago.

More recent health challenges caused Cawley’s sentencing hearing to be delayed.

He was arrested last week after failing to show up for a previously scheduled sentencing hearing, citing his brother’s death for his absence.

The father of three has several criminal convictions over a lengthy period of time, but limited interactions with the judicial system since 2007.

He was ordered to provide a DNA sample, handed a mandatory lifetime firearms ban and forfeited several belongings.

Cawley’s two year prison sentence was the result of a joint submission accepted by justice Majawa.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com
On Twitter: @reporterholmes