Man sentenced to 2.5 years for 'dial-a-dope' operation in BC Interior

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sentenced a 26-year-old man from India to 2.5 years in prison for taking part in a so-called "dial-a-dope" operation in Kelowna.

Mandeep Pandher pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, fentanyl and para‑fluorofentanyl, for the purpose of trafficking on the day his trial was set to begin last month.

Justice Gary Weatherill's reasons for judgment say Pandher was arrested in May 2022 after police conducted surveillance and watched him coming and going from a suspected drug "stash house" near the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus in Kelowna.

It says officers found 92 packages of drugs on Pandher at the time of his arrest, and later obtained a search warrant for the stash house.

The ruling says a search turned up larger quantities of drugs and led to the arrest of two other people — one who has been handed a three-year sentence, while the other was deported.

The judge also imposed a 10-year firearm ban for Pandher, an order for him to submit a DNA sample to the national criminal database, and the forfeiture of funds and property that was seized during his arrest.

The court document says Pandher had come to Canada on a student visa and intended on taking courses in Ontario, but at some point he stopped attending university, contrary to the terms of his visa.

It says he moved to the Okanagan and joined the "dial-a-dope" operation in the Okanagan.