15-month sentence for luring
The Gazette has learned a St. Albert man nabbed in a province-wide child luring sting was sentenced to 15 months behind bars in January.
Timothy Olsen, 37, from St. Albert was originally facing charges of child luring, making child pornography, making child pornography available, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team announced in November 2018 it had charged Olsen along with 12 other men who mostly lived in Alberta, with a total of 69 offences.
In January, he was sentenced in an Edmonton courtroom for luring a child under 16 and was handed a 15-month jail sentence and two years of probation upon release.Around 58 computers and electronic devices were seized in the sting. The arrests took place between February and October of last year in Edmonton, St. Albert, Wainwright, Drayton Valley, Fort Saskatchewan and in Barrie, Ont.
CBD trafficking prelim scheduled
A trio of people accused of trafficking after a business was busted selling a cannabis byproduct before cannabis legalization took effect have a fall date set for their preliminary inquiry.
Last year, Big Mike's Vapor Trails, also known as Big Mike's Bright Lights, on Boudreau Road spent months advertising online and on a large storefront sign that they had cannabidiol (CBD) – a cannabis byproduct – for sale.At the time, CBD was listed within the Schedule II of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act as a product that was illegal to possess without proper authorization.
The St. Albert RCMP Drug Unit investigated, and on Sept. 26, a CDSA search warrant was carried out at the business.
During the investigation, the RCMP found the business did not have the proper authorization to possess or distribute CBD or THC products.
Store employee Tasha Smith, 29, of Edmonton was arrested in the business at the time. Store owners Michael Sommerville, 62, and Unice Smith, 48, both from South Baptiste, Alta., later turned themselves in to police.
The three are each facing two counts of possession of a controlled subject for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.
Sommerville is facing three additional firearm-related offences.
Tasha and Unice Smith are facing charges of trafficking a controlled substance and possession of proceeds of a crime under $5,000.
The trio have not entered pleas yet but have elected to be tried by a judge alone. They are slated to appear for a preliminary hearing at the St. Albert Provincial Courthouse on Oct 28, 2016, at 9:30 a.m.
