Nanaimo repeat offender guilty after being arrested with $90,000 worth of fentanyl

A repeat offender was found guilty of possessing fentanyl worth more than $90,000 for the purpose of trafficking.

Kerry Chang was arraigned April 29 in British Columbia Supreme Court in Nanaimo.

In the fall of 2020, Nanaimo RCMP officers searched a home where Chang was staying. Police found just over 9.5 grams of methamphetamine, 700 milligrams of GHB, the party drug, and 62 grams of fentanyl in his bedroom.

Chang claimed the fentanyl was for his own use and that an additional half-kilogram of fentanyl in the living room belonged to a friend, now deceased, who was using it for trafficking and personal use. The drugs were mixed with caffeine in separate plastic bags. A credit card in Chang’s name was on an electronic scale.

Judge Robin Baird, in his ruling, said the amount of fentanyl found would have been about $10,000 purchased in bulk, but in 0.1 gram doses the return would have been more than $90,000.

Chang told the court he suffered from a “rabid” addiction to fentanyl and began abusing it in an attempt to deal with intense pain caused by injuries from a motorcycle accident earlier that year . He said that while he was selling drugs, he stopped after the accident. At the time of the arrest, he said his home had deteriorated to the point where several people had entered it to sell and use drugs recreationally.

The search was conducted after RCMP received a report from the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Center that Chang was talking on the phone with an inmate about trafficking during a recorded phone call.

Although the accused said this was before he stopped selling, the judge was not convinced.

“I don’t believe for a second that Mr. Chang suddenly stopped selling fentanyl because of his car accident. I accept that he was seriously injured and had to be immobilized for some time. But receiving fentanyl in bulk from (his dealer) and selling it from his living room did not require high mobility, a fact ultimately admitted by Mr. Chang on cross-examination,” Baird said. “If he were able to make breakfast, as he claims he did when the members (of the emergency response team) entered the house, he could also mix fentanyl with caffeine and put it in bags to resell.”

The judge also expressed doubt that his friend left $90,000 worth of fentanyl on the living room table, saying “no drug dealer in his right mind would leave an inventory of that much value unattended, especially in a house full of fentanyl addicts.”

Although Baird acknowledged that Chang intended to consume some of the fentanyl, he said he had no hesitation in concluding that most of it was to be sold.

READ MORE: Three Nanaimo men charged with drug trafficking on ‘dark web’

READ MORE: Nanaimo RCMP find gun during arrest

Chang is a repeat offender whose past charges include possession for the purpose of trafficking. In February 2020, he was arrested along with two other Nanaimo men as part of an investigation into drug trafficking on the “dark web.”

In 2017, her 16-year-old daughter Makayla Chang was the victim of a high-profile murder case.

A sentencing date for Kerry Chang has not yet been set.

READ MORE: Nanaimo teen’s murderer sentenced to life