Prince Albert Police seized over 30 kg of cocaine and $55,000 in cash in March. One man connected has been sentenced to 7 years in jail for his role. (file photo/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

P.A.'s largest cocaine bust

Man gets 7 years for role in Prince Albert’s record cocaine bust

Dec 19, 2023 | 4:45 PM

While he was not the directing mind, Jim Lakatos of North Battleford was still involved at a high level in a drug trafficking operation running out of a mobile home north of Prince Albert.

Today, the 35-year-old Lakatos learned he will spend the next six and a half years (after accounting for pre-sentencing time in custody) behind bars for his role in the operation, which saw Prince Albert Police net 31.2 kilograms of cocaine — their single largest seizure of drugs ever. He received a 417 day credit for time spent in remand.

“I’m sure there are other, higher amounts out there, but not around here,” said Provincial Court Judge Daunt, as she accepted a guilty plea and joint submission on sentencing from the Crown prosecutor and the defence lawyer.

“Given the pictures and sheer amount of cocaine and the money floating around, you had to know you were into something big.”

In March of this year, PAPS announced officers seized the cocaine along with $55,000 in cash and arrested four people, one of whom was Lakatos.

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Crown prosecutor Brent Slobodian explained the scale of the operation by saying he added up one page of a logbook of distribution that was seized from the mobile home at $175,000. The logbook detailed amounts distributed to smaller traffickers.

After learning of the trafficking operation in February of 2023, police surveiled the mobile home at the Whispering Pines trailer court.

They saw several people entering and exiting the home and followed them on several occasions into Prince Albert, then on the highway to Shellbrook, Meadow Lake, Big River and Green Lake.

The stops made were short and consistent with drug trafficking activity.

On March 16, police entered the home on a CDSA warrant where they found the money, multiple cellphones, packaging materials, scales, a safe, five gallon pails, knives and hammers.

Lakatos and one of the other accused people were at the table counting money.

The knives and hammers had cocaine residue on them, and officers say they were used to break up the bricks of cocaine. The bricks were found to be between 90 and 95 per cent pure cocaine while the drugs found in the packages were about 51 per cent and had been mixed with phenacetin, a common cutting agent.

“It had all the hallmarks of a large scale cocaine operation,” Slobodian said.

Slobodian and defence lawyer Sam Johma agreed a seven year, three month sentence was appropriate, using case law from another Prince Albert case as a guideline.

In that case, Trevor McKay was the directing mind and controlled every aspect of the trafficking operation but was caught with 11.26 kilograms of cocaine.

READ MORE: McKay was given a nine-year sentence, later reduced to seven years by the Court of Appeal.

He was sentenced initially to nine years but that was appealed and reduced to seven years. It was the highest volume of drugs seized in the city until the Whispering Pines bust.

“The community and Mr. Lakatos need to know that this behaviour will be denounced and deterred by the length of the sentence,” Slobodian said.

Johma said his client previously operated a painting business for well over a decade and worked 60 hours per week until the pandemic hit, and his business evaporated overnight.

“Unfortunately for Mr. Lakatos, he got a really good opportunity,” said Johma, adding that while Lakatos was accounting for the contents of the mobile home, he was not the directing party and was looking to get out of the operation before he was caught.

“He didn’t think he would be in this deep,” Johma said, and pointed Daunt’s attention to a very limited criminal history.

Lakatos also pleaded guilty to possessing the proceeds of crime, a violation of the Tobacco Act for the 42 cartons of cigarettes found and breaching release conditions.

That fact that two uncles and a cousin have very recently died of substance abuse has also not been lost on Lakatos either, according to the lawyer.

Matters connected with the operation are still making their way through the court system for Gordon Greer-Vandale of Prince Albert, Santana Foulds of Saskatoon and Dean Marchand of Saskatoon.

Charges against Spencer Evans of North Battleford were stayed by the Crown Prosecutor several months ago.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com