A 30-year-old Vernon man running a mid-level fentanyl trafficking operation was released on bail twice and continued dealing drugs until police found him passed out in a vehicle.

In an Aug. 21 BC Supreme Court decision, Justice Richard Hewson said David Abraham Arnold Taylor appeared to be a different person than he was in 2024 when he was first arrested, which made the sentencing difficult.

“The lack of care and absence of positive role models I experienced as a child does not stop the fact that I chose to sell drugs and to have a gun,” Taylor told the justice. “I’m guilty and I’m sorry for my mistake.”

Taylor admitted the harm he’d caused was “beyond measure.”

His arrest dates back to 2023 when Vernon RCMP noticed a drug trafficking operation run from a four-plex on 28 Ave. Police repeatedly saw multiple people attending the residence for short durations, including known drug users and a known street‑level drug trafficker.

A search uncovered a “trap house” where a door and a hallway separated sellers from buyers.

The operation was clearly well organized.

“The front door had a heavy barricade and multiple locks. The fridge had directions for house mom duties, including making coffee, cleaning, asking people if they were thirsty, and being polite to the customers,” the decision reads. “In another room, there was a shift calendar for a seven‑day period with day and night shifts. Scoresheets, scales, cellphones, and drug packaging material were also found.”

When police raided the property, fentanyl and other drugs were dropped through a vent in the unit to the downstairs neighbour. About $5,000 of fentanyl was ultimately seized.

Police also found a sawed‑off shotgun and a .22 calibre rifle.

“The sawed‑off shotgun was on a bed, with the chamber loaded and a magazine nearby,” the Justice said.

Taylor was arrested before being released on bail.

Later, it appears he failed to show up to court as an arrest warrant was issued. When police picked him up more than a year after the first arrest, he had fentanyl on him, which led to more charges for trafficking.

He was given bail again, and six months later found unconscious in the driver’s seat of a vehicle.

“The police found fentanyl, as well as scoresheets, knives, scales, and empty packaging,” the Justice said.

For reasons unexplained, he has not been charged in connection with that incident.

Justice Hewson also noted he had sentenced Taylor to two years’ jail for trafficking in 2019.

The decision says Taylor’s father left when he was an infant, and he was later taken into care because of his mother’s mental health problems.

Over the years, he lived in 32 foster care homes.

“The pattern of transitions from one home to the next made it difficult for him to form secure attachments and contributed to behavioural and emotional difficulties in his youth. He became entrenched in a pattern of addiction. Consuming drugs became the organizing factor in his life,” the Justice said.

He trafficked drugs to support his own addiction.

As a youth, he’d been convicted for assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats, and robbery with a disguise. By age 30, he’d never had meaningful employment.

However, the Justice noted he’d since gotten sober, moved to Calgary and was living with his girlfriend who owned her home and ran her own business.

He submitted numerous letters of support to the court that spoke of his remorse and acceptance of responsibility.

“I am satisfied that Mr. Taylor is a man who, through his own efforts, has made substantial strides in his own rehabilitation,” Justice Hewson said. “However, I must also consider the seriousness of the offences that he has committed and that he has pleaded guilty to.”

Ultimately, Justice Hewson sentenced Taylor to seven years’ jail.