Gangster Jarrod Bacon sentenced to 12 years for cocaine trafficking

Gangster Jarrod Bacon was sentenced to 12 years in jail for conspiring to traffic up to 100 kilograms of cocaine worth $3 million back in 2009. Bacon, 29, was also given almost five years credit for the time he has been in jail awaiting trial, meaning his net sentence will be seven years and two months. B.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Austin Cullen said the sentence was on the high end of the range because Bacon lacked remorse and was on bail when he committed the crime. And he said Bacon's enabling family circumstances meant there was little hope for rehabilitation. Jarrod Bacon declined to address the court before Cullen read out his reasons for judgment. The Vancouver court room was packed with media and a few spectators, but only two Bacon supporters who were from his mother's church. Bacon and his co-accused and former father-in-law Wayne Scott were arrested in November 2009 by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit after a reverse sting using an agent identified only as GL. GL, an acquaintance of Scott's, approached the CFSEU about becoming an agent and said he believed he could get at Bacon, whose Red Scorpion gang at the time was locked in a bloody street war against rivals from the United Nations gang. Both Bacon and Scott, 56, were convicted on Feb. 3, based on incriminating statements surreptitiously recorded in the summer of 2009 by GL. Scott's sentencing has been delayed until June 7 because of health issues. Crown prosecutor Peter LaPrairie had asked for a sentence of 21 years for Bacon, minus pre-trial credit, while defence lawyer Jeffrey Ray said a more fitting term for the offence was eight years given that no cocaine ever existed in the conspiracy. Cullen disagreed with the Crown's submission on sentencing, saying most of the cases cited were for importation of cocaine - a more serious crime. But he said Bacon deserved the high end of the scale for trafficking, especially since he got involved in the conspiracy while out on bail on gun charges. "The accused's record and apparent lack of remorse reduces the likelihood of rehabilitation and the circumstances taken as a whole warrant a sentence that firmly repudiates the evil of people trafficking," Cullen said. He said there was evidence at trial that Bacon's parents David and Susan were aware of their son's involvement in the cocaine deal. And he said the fact Bacon has no work history and described himself in court as a "criminal" and an "enforcer" demonstrates that he has chosen a criminal career path. Cullen mentioned the gangland execution of Bacon's elder brother Jonathan last August in Kelowna and his younger brother Jamie facing murder charges as more evidence of Bacon's negative family environment. He said Bacon took the necessary steps to participate in the cocaine conspiracy, including finding a funder who could put up millions for the drugs. Cullen earlier described Bacon's testimony at trial as evasive "and at times confrontational and argumentative." Bacon had claimed on the stand that he was only humouring GL about participating in the cocaine deal so that he could get access to five-kilo sample that he planned to rob. The cash for cocaine exchange had been scheduled for Aug. 28, 2009, but was called off after Scott saw police activity outside of a warehouse where GL purported to be holding the cocaine.