Calgarian serving 10-year U.S. sentence for trafficking on dark web

Drugs charges connected with trafficking fentanyl on the dark web were withdrawn Friday against a Calgary man who is serving time in the U.S. on similar charges.

Defence lawyer Ian McKay told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rosemary Nation that Christopher Bantli has already been punished for his crimes in an American courtroom.

“Mr. Bantli has been sentenced in the United States,” McKay told the Calgary judge.

Crown prosecutor Louise Proulx said as a result, she was withdrawing the Canadian charges against Bantli.

Bantli, 40, was handed a 10-year prison term in a District of Columbia courtroom last month after he pleaded guilty Feb. 13, to a charge of conspiring to import fentanyl into the U.S.

According to a United States Department of Justice release, Bantli ran a drug lab out of his Calgary apartment distributing drugs through the Canadian and U.S. postal services.

Between November 2015, and Sept. 8, 2016, “Bantli advertised, distributed, and imported controlled substances, including powerful fentanyl analogues and synthetic opiates, through the encrypted website AlphaBay.

“Bantli accepted virtual currency such as Bitcoin as payment for the illegal substances, and used Canadian and U.S. mail to distribute the illicit substances to consumers.  To assist with his distribution enterprise, Bantli used his apartment in Calgary . . . as a drug laboratory.”

His crimes were investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency with the co-operation of Canadian law enforcement.

“Bantli’s apartment contained a pill press, packaging, cutting agents, as well as the controlled substances themselves,” the Department of Justice release said.

Proulx agreed to withdraw the charges once Bantli was sentenced in the U.S. after he consented to his extradition.

KMartin@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @KMartinCourts