Alleged Kamloops gangster could get 10 years in prison

An alleged Kamloops gangster is expected to plead guilty later this month to a raft of charges that could fetch a sentence as long as a decade in prison.

Erwin James Dagle, 24, is facing charges relating to two significant 2017 busts by police that turned up fentanyl, carfentanyl, cocaine, heroin, meth and cash.

During a brief hearing on Monday, defence lawyer John Gustafson said his client will plead guilty in two weeks.

Dagle has been described previously by police as a member of the notoriously violent Red Scorpions, the criminal organization behind the 2007 Surrey Six slayings.

One set of Dagle’s charges stem from a March 2017 drug bust at a home on Irongate Place in Sun Rivers.

In that instance, police seized a pound of fentanyl and 56 grams of a mixture of heroin, fentanyl and carfentanyl, as well as nearly 1.5 kilograms of cocaine and more than 700 grams of meth.

Another set of the allegations against Dagle are related to a separate bust at a Kamloops hotel five months later.

On Aug. 24, 2017, a search of a room at the Hospitality Inn turned up eight grams of carfentanyl, nearly 70 grams of mixtures of heroin, fentanyl, carfentanyl and meth, 167 grams of fentanyl, half a pound of fentanyl mixed with heroin, a pound of meth and a kilogram of cocaine.

Three weeks after that bust, Red Scorpions founder Konaam Shirzad was shot to death outside his Kamloops home in Guerin Creek. No arrests have been made in relation to Shirzad’s murder.

Dagle is expected to plead guilty on Feb. 26.