Five years-plus for dealing would-be heroin
By Peggy Revell on April 12, 2018.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell A Medicine Hat man selling heroin that turned out to be the deadly opioid carfentanil was sentenced Wednesday to five years and one month in a federal penitentiary. What was originally set to be a preliminary hearing turned into a sentencing, as 33-year-old Levi Aebig entered guilty pleas to three counts of trafficking carfentanil, trafficking meth, trafficking heroin and possessing proceeds of crime. According to the agreed statement of facts, a police investigation began in May 2017 after they received source information that heroin and meth were being sold from a specific cellphone number. Undercover officers contacted this number, and proceeded to make multiple drug purchases from Aebig. On May 1, 0.25 grams of heroin were purchased for $100, with the officer warned by Aebig to “be careful with that s—.” Lab testing revealed that the heroin was actually a carfentanil and caffeine mixture. Carfentanil is considered 100 times more potent than fentanyl and 5,000 times more potent than heroin — even a trace amount of ingestion can be deadly. Subsequent purchases of 0.2 grams of heroin for $80 and 0.83 grams of heroin for $200 were made, which were later analyzed to be carfentanil and a carfentanil/caffeine mixture. Meth purchases of 3.91 grams, 3.5 grams and 15.47 grams were also made. A purchase of 0.2 grams of heroin later turned out to be a mixture of heroin, fentanyl and caffeine. With this purchase, Aebig warned the undercover officer to be careful with the heroin as “the last batch dropped four people.” In a June 15 incident, Aebig was given $600 on the promise he would provide an ounce of meth, but never did and didn’t respond to attempts to contact him. Aebig also pled guilty to possessing proceeds of crime from the $1,240 in pre-recorded buy money given to purchase the drugs. This money which was never recovered. The sentence was a joint submission between the Federal Crown and defence counsel. Aebig has been in custody since June 2017, and was given 471 days credit toward his sentence. Defence counsel told the court that while Aebig has an “unenviable record,” this is the first conviction he has had for drug trafficking. Aebig had been released from prison in February 2017 after serving time on other charges, with the intention of finding employment —but had difficulty finding work and fell back into old habits and in with old acquaintances, counsel said. Counsel stated that Aebig hopes to access programs that will be available to him in the federal system to get himself back on track. 16
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