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“Such threats are particularly troubling and aggravating in light of his capacity for violence, as shown by his manslaughter conviction arising from stabbing a Hells Angels associate as that person sought to retreat away from Mr. Leach,” he said.

“It is apparent that with access to weapons, his experience in committing a violent offence, together with the temper he exposed in the audio recordings, provide a recipe for danger.”

Federal prosecutor Maggie Loda had argued that a 22-year sentence was appropriate for Leach, while defence lawyer David Milburn had urged a term of eight years be imposed.

He argued that Leach’s early guilty plea, just months after his August 2017 arrest, as well as Leach’s apology to the court, were mitigating factors in his client’s favour.

But Jamieson said the expression of remorse rang hollow when contrasted by some of the comments Leach made during the intercepted conversations.

When the mother of a customer called the dial-a-dope number complaining that her son had gotten sick from Leach’s product, he expressed no concern and commented that they had to change the line’s phone number and the delivery cars.

He also made racist and derogatory comments about his own drug-line workers who were of Persian descent, Jamieson said.

Leach also commented to an associate that he wanted to expand his drug line into Langley, but would need more guns to do so.

“The potential for violence is further enhanced by his comments on the intercepts as to his intention to expand to other places such as Langley and how he anticipates ‘a war’ coming,” Jamieson said. “I also think it is significant that the weapons Mr. Leach possessed were stored in a haphazard manner within his mother’s bedroom closet.”