“The drug you’re couriering is just really an evil drug,” said Judge Vaughn Myers. “It causes problems for an awful lot of people.”
According to Crown Prosecutor Erwin Schulz, the RCMP pulled over a gold coloured, early 90’s Acura several dozen kilometres east of Jasper on July 9, 2009. The vehicle had tinted windows, illegal in Alberta and a driver’s side window was smashed. All were indicators that lead the police to believe a stop was necessary, the court heard.
According to Schulz, the RCMP officer who made the stop, Cst. Samdi Tirith, said Gladdish behaved extremely nervously during the stop. His hands shook when he handed over his registration and he refused to look Cst. Tirith in the eye.
Cst. Tirith also noticed a distinct odour of marijuana emanating from the car. Crumbs of what appeared to be marijuana were also apparent along the vehicle’s floorboard.
Cst. Tirith began to search the vehicle and in the Acura’s trunk, he found a suitcase containing 20 grams of marijuana.
Gladdish was arrested on the spot.
A subsequent search of the vehicle found a brick of cocaine hidden underneath the rear bumper of the vehicle. The value of the cocaine is estimated to have a street value of somewhere between $140,000 to $170,000.
Gladdish’s lawyer, Jamel Chadi, told the court that Gladdish’s parents divorced when he was 17-years-old. He bounced from family to family and never had stable adult influence in his life.
“This crime was obviously a turn for the worse for him and he found himself in a situation where he was allied with people he shouldn’t have been,” said Chadi.
Both Chadi and Shulz recommended that two years in a federal prison was a fair punishment for Gladdish.
“You’re an essential part of a drug trade that is... really causing a lot of dreadful problems to society,” said Judge Myers. “It pleases none that at 21 years of age, you are going into a federal prison.”
