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Drugs charges connected with trafficking fentanyl on the dark web were withdrawn Friday against a Calgary man who is serving time in the U.S. on similar charges.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

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“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.