A Laval resident became involved in a drug deal while driving a vehicle containing two kilos of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, two firearms and… a newborn.
“Imagine, given the nature of the substances in the car and the guns… there could have been a shootout!” You didn’t have an ounce of marijuana with you. “Maybe someone wanted to steal everything and shoot the car,” Judge Hélène V. Morin complained, and sentenced Henderson Joseph to six and a half years in prison.
Henderson Joseph was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. With kind approval
The man was arrested in the fall of 2020 as part of the Longueuil police sonar project.
The investigation into drug trafficking did not target Joseph. But he was caught in police crosshairs after he was spotted exchanging goods with a monitored person, Daniel St-Georges.
Hides in the car
Under the eyes of the bloodhounds, Henderson had left Joseph a bag in St George’s backpack. No less than 5.5 kilos of cocaine were then seized in this backpack.
When police searched the Tiguan vehicle that Henderson Joseph had traveled in, they were quite surprised: inside was a baby barely a few weeks old.
Two kilos of cocaine in several bags, an ounce of heroin and 3.2 grams of fentanyl were found.
Police confiscated bags of drugs. Courtesy of court. With kind approval
Drugs and two firearms were found in the Tiguan vehicle driven by the defendant in October 2020. COURTESY OF COURT Courtesy
Everything was hidden in a bag, which also contained bills and an identity card in the defendant’s name.
The vehicle’s rear trunk was also modified to hide a stash equipped with a mechanism so elaborate it took a hydraulic press to open it, Crown Prosecutor Me Eve said Malouin, set forth in the filing during Joseph’s recent guilty plea, at the Montreal Courthouse.
The vehicle’s rear trunk had been modified to conceal a stash fitted with a mechanism so elaborate that it required a hydraulic press to open it. Courtesy of court. With kind approval
Two kilos of cocaine, 200 grams of heroin and fentanyl and two homemade weapons were hidden in the cache. A high-capacity magazine and silencer were also confiscated.
Two homemade firearms were confiscated from Henderson Joseph’s car, which also contained a newborn baby. Courtesy of court. With kind approval
Due to the pandemic
The investigation did not determine that the vehicle belonged to Henderson Joseph.
But his DNA was on both guns.
“So we doubt that when you say you didn’t know those guns were there. I understand it’s a defense mechanism that can be denied. But the evidence is overwhelming,” the judge told the 36-year-old defendant.
After losing his job as a security guard due to the pandemic, Joseph, with no criminal record, joined forces with the criminal world to provide for his family’s needs, his attorney Me Danièle Roy summarized.
As a result of an agreement between the parties, he was sentenced to 78 months in prison. He has been detained since his arrest and has one more year to serve.
Daniel St-Georges was sentenced to 40 months in prison for drug possession for the purpose of drug trafficking.
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