Cocaine dealer gets stiff sentence for 856 gang affiliation

A 24-year-old B.C. man was sentenced to four and a half years in jail this week in Yellowknife after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.

Joshua Petten has been in jail since July 15, 2015. He was arrested after the RCMP searched his Yellowknife apartment and found 126 grams of crack cocaine and two digital scales in his suitcase. They also found cash, marijuana and ecstasy pills in the apartment.

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The search was part of an ongoing investigation of the B.C.-based 856 gang's drug trafficking in Yellowknife.

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Petten had been out of jail for less than two months, having just finished serving a sentence for illegally possessing a loaded firearm. He was arrested on that charge shortly after threatening an employee of a Yellowknife bar with the handgun.

According to evidence at his sentencing hearing, after being discharged from prison, Petten went back to his home in British Columbia. But two weeks later, police spotted him back in Yellowknife with another man suspected of being an 856 gang member.

At Petten's sentencing hearing on the drug charge last month, the prosecutor argued for a stiffer sentence because of Petten's involvement in organized crime. Though he admitted to possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, Petten denied he was a member of the 856 gang and denied the gang was a criminal organization.

In an attempt to prove Petten's gang involvement, the prosecutor called an RCMP gang expert to testify at the hearing. Sgt. Dean Riou testified that 856 gang members have tattoos on the inside of their lower lips that designate where they are in the gang's drug dealing hierarchy.

An '8' signifies a low level dealer. Those with an '85' are a level up, typically supplying street dealers and receiving cash. Those with '856' are at the top level of a local hierarchy.

Petten has 85tattooed inside his lower lip. He has an 8 tattooed on one thumb and a 5 tattooed on the other. He also has a skull with a crown tattooed on his chest with 856 written across the crown.

"His attitude now appears the same as his attitude when he was sentenced for illegal possession of a loaded firearm," wrote Judge Bernadette Schmaltz in her written decision. "He still will not admit he is involved in a criminal gang."

The four-and-a-half year sentence Petten received was what the Crown had argued for. With credit for the time he has already served, he has three years and five months left on his sentence.