Drug lab operator misses sentencing hearing | News

A man who pleaded guilty to drug charges involving acetyl fentanyl was a no-show at his sentencing hearing Monday in Kelowna.

Leslie John McCulloch, 40, did not appear in provincial court. He had also failed to appear at a pre-sentencing hearing last week. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

His sentencing was put over to March 4.

McCulloch was arrested after a March 2016 drug bust at a property on Auburn Road in West Kelowna.

The search warrant yielded an estimated 500 fake Percocet and OxyContin pills, two industrial pill presses capable of producing about 2,500 pills an hour, a chemical mixer and eight kilograms of suspected fentanyl powder, police said at the time.

The drug lab shipped as many as 100,000 fentanyl tablets to Calgary each month, according to the Calgary Police Service.

Charges against McCulloch were later amended to acetyl fentanyl from fentanyl.

McCulloch was originally charged with drug trafficking and production of a controlled substance, and the Crown indicated it would seek a sentence of 13 years in jail.

As part of an arrangement with the Crown, McCulloch pleaded guilty in February 2017 to charges of possession and production of controlled substances. He was released on bail.

He got a new lawyer in April 2017, and in March 2018 he tried to withdraw his guilty plea. A judge rejected the application, ruling McCulloch knew what he was doing and understood the consequences when he offered the guilty plea.

McCulloch did not show up at his pre-sentencing hearing last Monday. The warrant for his arrest describes him as weighing 271 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes, and standing five feet 11 inches tall.