B.C. man sentenced in drug-related abduction case

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A B.C. man has been sentenced for his involvement in a drug-trafficking-related abduction that transported the victim from Langley to Dawson Creek. 

Raymond Tyrell Brown, a Surrey resident, pleaded guilty to a charge of forcible confinement in a New Westminster court in December 2022. 

According to court documents released on February 13th, Brown had previously been charged in Australia for attempting to smuggle heroin into the country in 2014. He received a five-year sentence, of which he served three years.  

The crime he took part in occurred in 2017 after the victim, who was involved in a drug trafficking ring in the Fraser Valley and Dawson Creek, had failed to deliver a “quantity of cocaine and heroin” from Langley to Dawson Creek. 

The victim told the leader of the drug trafficking operation, a man known as “Doug,” that the drugs had been stolen. 

On August 29th, 2017, the victim set up a meeting with Doug in Langley, where he was greeted by two individuals, Brown and another man. 

According to the court documents, Brown patted the man down and told him to get into a black Jeep. Once inside the vehicle, a third individual restrained and subdued the victim before placing a pillowcase over his head. 

There was no evidence that Brown was involved in restraining the victim while he was in the Jeep or that Brown had any further involvement in the crime. The Crown did not allege that Brown knew where the victim was taken or his treatment after that. 

From there, the court documents detail how the victim was transported to Dawson Creek, where he was forcibly confined to a house until September 3rd, 2017. During that time, the victim was repeatedly beaten and had the word “thief” burned into his skin with a blowtorch. 

Police found the victim and took him to the hospital when a concerned neighbour contacted the RCMP. 

One of the people to have allegedly participated in what happened in the house at Dawson Creek was Brown’s former co-accused, Nicholas Ryan Ball. 

Charges for the crime were initially laid in 2020, but Brown changed his plea to guilty after Ball’s passing in 2022. 

The Crown argued that due to the severity of the case, the impact on the victim, and Brown’s previous criminal history, he should serve three years in jail alongside several ancillary orders. 

Ultimately, Justice W. Paul Riley decided upon a 22-month conditional sentence, followed by a 12-month probationary period. 

Riley noted Brown’s guilty plea and the remorse Brown had shown through a letter he had written in his sentencing. Riley also noted Brown’s community supports and job and that he voluntarily sought counselling. 

“Indeed, given the passage of time since the offence, and given Mr. Brown’s generally positive performance on strict bail terms for the past 22 months, sending him to jail at this point in time would risk disrupting his ongoing rehabilitation,” Riley stated. 

The conditional sentence will see Brown serve his sentence in the community, albeit under strict conditions. The first four months of the sentence will see Brown under “virtual house arrest.” The only time he will be allowed to leave the house during this period will be for work, doctor’s appointments, or counselling sessions. 

After these four months, the conditions will progressively lessen to only house arrest only on weekends and finally to a seven days a week curfew. 

Brown will be required to wear an ankle monitor for the first 18 months, cannot contact the victim or a number of other named individuals, and is prohibited from having any kind of weapons, firearms, or other prohibited devices under the Criminal Code. 

Riley stated that Brown would have to continue to work, make “pro-social choices,” and make reparations to the community. 

“His liberty will be strictly curtailed for a long time. He will have to continue to work hard to avoid backsliding into negative peer associations and poor choices,” Riley explained.  

“But I am satisfied that Mr. Brown is on the right path, and the sentence that I impose today should allow him to continue onto that path.” 

The Oral Reasons for Sentencing can be read on the BC Courts website.