Two men were sentenced to house arrest this week stemming from drug charges laid as part of a massive drug operation last year.
Michael Randall Hein and Vincent Roger Parenteau both pleaded guilty to single counts of trafficking in a controlled substance.
Hein admitted to selling cocaine to an undercover police officer on Nov. 4 last year. The officer had called a cellphone number and arranged to meet with Hein. The officer gave Hein $120 and received two grams of cocaine.
Parenteau also sold drugs to an undercover officer, but in his case he sold a quarter-ounce of marijuana for $60.
Both men were arrested separately not long after the exchanges were made.
The charges laid against them were part of a massive regional drug operation called Project Kompression. The project resulted in the arrest of 65 people across the Edmonton region. There were a total of 153 criminal charges laid as part of the operation including 14 charges in St. Albert and another five charges in Morinville.
Hein was sentenced Monday to an 18-month house arrest term that will see him confined to his house at all hours of the day for the first nine months.
He will be allowed out of the house during those first nine months only for work and a handful of other exemptions.
In the second nine months he will have to abide by an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. He will have to abstain from any consumption of drugs and perform 40 hours of community service.
Parenteau was also sentenced to house arrest, but only for nine months.
He will spend four months under full house arrest and the remaining five months with a midnight to 6 a.m. curfew.
He was also granted similar exemptions for work and must perform 40 hours of community service.
Both men are also now subject to 10-year weapons ban. The RCMP seized the drugs as well as the two men’s cars during the arrest.
Hein had his car returned as part of his guilty plea, but the court seized Parenteau’s 1995 Pontiac.
Two other men also pleaded guilty Monday to drug charges connected with the project but the court ordered a pre-sentence report before the two men are sentenced.
Probation officers complete pre-sentence reports that are meant to provide guidance to judges and Crown prosecutors about appropriate sentences.
