A file photo shows a .22 calibre Ruger handgun. (QMI Agency files)
Winnipeg drug dealer Pardeep Kapoor book-ended Monday with court appearances that netted him a 10-year prison sentence.
Kapoor, 32, was sentenced Monday morning to three years in prison for possession of a restricted loaded firearm. Hours later, he was back before another judge, who sentenced him to seven years for drug trafficking.
Kapoor was one of 13 people arrested last February as part of an undercover police investigation dubbed Project Deplete targeting the illegal gun and drug trade. Like similar investigations before it, Project Deplete used a paid police agent and gang associate to ensnare targets.
Court heard Kapoor sold the agent half a kilogram of cocaine for $22,000 in October 2010.
Kapoor was not an initial target of the investigation and had no gang ties, said defence lawyer Sheldon Pinx.
“He was conducting himself independently,” Pinx said. “It was his decision to conduct the transaction on the part of himself.” The police investigation was suspended for several months after the police agent became the target of death threats. Kapoor had not yet been arrested on Aug. 25, 2011, when police pulled him over for a traffic stop on Maryland Street.
Kapoor and two others were removed from the vehicle at gunpoint, but not before Kapoor managed to hand a .22-calibre pistol to a friend, who put it in her purse.
Cops found the loaded gun and also seized a bulletproof vest from the car.
Kapoor’s prior record includes convictions for robbery and assault with a weapon.
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