The drugs were found hidden in a hole in the drywall behind a bathroom mirror in an apartment in the 400 block of Pendygrasse Road.
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Sentencing concluded this month in the case of two Saskatoon men charged after four kilograms of methamphetamine was discovered three years ago in a Fairhaven neighbourhood apartment.
On Oct. 9, Joshua Devon Paul Bekkattla, 35, pleaded guilty in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench to possessing meth for the purpose of trafficking.
Court heard he wasn’t aware of the amount of drugs his childhood friend, Rory James Mass, was stashing at his Pendygrasse Road apartment.
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However, he suspected Mass was a drug dealer, never asked him what he was bringing into his home, and would have known there were drugs in his suite, federal Crown prosecutor Andrea Curliss said when reading the facts.
Defence lawyer Carson Demmans called it a case of “wilful blindness.”
Saskatoon police began surveillance in April 2021 after they were tipped off that Mass, 35, was trafficking large amounts of drugs in the city.
Over a month, he was seen driving his 2018 Acura RDX back and forth between his downtown River Landing suite and the apartment in the 400 block of Pendygrasse Road, where he would regularly stop before making “short meets” with known drug dealers.
Police obtained a search warrant for both units after Mass was arrested with 102 cocaine pills on Dec. 2, 2021. Officers found 103 more cocaine pills and $15,000 in a safe inside his suite at 490 Second Avenue South, the facts state.
In the Pendygrasse suite, four kilograms of meth was found hidden in a hole in the drywall behind a bathroom mirror, Curliss told court.
Bekkattla was inside the apartment and complied with his arrest. Court heard he had no idea what Mass was doing during the police surveillance.
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In April, Mass pleaded guilty to possessing meth for the purpose of trafficking and possessing over $5,000 of property obtained by crime. He was sentenced to four years in prison after Justice Colin Clackson accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence. With enhanced remand credit, he has just over three years left to serve.
Also accepting a joint submission, Justice Mona Dovell sentenced Bekkattla to a two-year conditional sentence (jail served in the community under conditions) followed by one year of probation. She agreed with the federal Crown that the sentence is reasonable considering this is his first drug trafficking conviction, and that Mass took responsibility for the drugs.
“I think it’s very important to put on the record that he has been on bail conditions for more than three years without a breach,” Demmans noted.
He said his client never saw or handled any drugs at the suite, where Mass would sometimes sleep and paid Bekkattla partial rent.
His conditions include a 24-hour curfew for the first 12 months of his conditional sentence — unless he has prior written permission from his supervisor or the court — followed by a less restrictive curfew for the rest of his sentence. He also cannot contact Mass, and must complete 30 hours of community service work.
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