FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – A Fort St. John man currently facing 11.5 years in prison for cocaine conspiracy saw 65 weapons charges he was facing dropped by prosecutors in court last week.
Darcy Peter Bailey, 49, was found guilty in August 2020 of conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to traffic the drug, and attempting to traffic the drug, and was sentenced in December 2020. The charges were in relation to the seizure of over 150 kilograms of cocaine from a container ship in June 2018 in Halifax.
The weapons offences Bailey was facing were issued in July 2018 in Baldonnel but were connected to a wider Federal RCMP Major Projects team investigation stemming from the Halifax cocaine seizure.
BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Dan McLaughlin says the weapons charges were stayed as the charge assessment standard was no longer met.
“In discharging the charge assessment function, Crown Counsel must independently, objectively, and fairly measure all the available evidence against a two-part test: whether there is a substantial likelihood of conviction; and, if so, whether the public interest requires a prosecution,” said McLaughlin.
“If, at any point, the prosecutor concludes that the evidentiary standard is no longer met or that a prosecution is no longer required in the public interest, a prosecution cannot proceed. In this case, the prosecutor concluded the charge assessment standard was no longer met and determined that a stay of proceedings was appropriate.”
Bailey was arrested on June 9th, 2018, along with two other men after Canada Border Services Agency divers discovered cocaine had been strapped to the bottom of the Arica, a container ship registered in Liberia. The three men were allegedly in possession of diving equipment when they were arrested near the Port of Halifax.
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