Fentanyl dealer sentenced to 12 years

Matt Preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca

A convicted Fort St. John fentanyl dealer who went on the run from the law for more than a year in 2021 has finally been sentenced.

Dana Nazarek was given a global sentence of 12 years less time served on April 6. He was credited with 683 days of time served as he spent 455 days in custody prior to being sentenced, court officials said.

Nazarek was wanted on a Canada-wide warrant after he cut his ankle monitor and went on the run before a BC Supreme Court trial appearance in Vancouver on drug trafficking charges in June 2021.

The next day, a jury found him guilty on six counts of traf- ficking and four counts of illegal weapons possession, the charges stemming from a police raid on his home in Fort St. John in 2018. During the raid, RCMP seized 800 fentanyl tablets as well as carfentanil, co- caine, meth, heroin, five loaded firearms, and $38,000 in cash.

The 51-year-old pleaded not guilty and was released on strict bail conditions to a halfway house in Surrey before his trial and eventual escape from custody last year. At the time of his escape, he was subject to electronic monitoring as a condition of his bail.

After more than a year at large, Nazarek was arrested by Vancouver police on Aug. 5, 2022, when officers came upon a group of people involved in a fight.

Nazarek was previously convicted and sentenced to 40 months in prison after police raided his Fort St. John home and seized more than 2,000 fentanyl pills disguised as Oxycontin in December 2013.