A 25-year-old drug dealer caught with 86 rocks of crack cocaine in his "man purse" has been sent to jail for nine months by a North Vancouver judge.
Judge Jane Auxier handed Mazyar Namiranian the sentence Oct. 3 in North Vancouver provincial court after Namiranian - who also went by the names "Ashkan" and "Rocco" - pleaded guilty to five counts of trafficking cocaine and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Namiranian was charged after police nabbed him Aug. 24, 2010 in a suspected North Vancouver "stash house" on West 15th Street carrying more than 33 grams of crack in a satchel.
Crown prosecutors estimated that was worth between $3,000 and $4,000.
Namiranian had previously been targeted by an undercover RCMP operation after police received a tip that a dial-a-dope line was being run in North Vancouver.
Namiranian sold rocks of crack to undercover officers multiple times during 2010 at locations including the Esso station at Lonsdale and 17th in North Vancouver. Amounts ranged from about a quarter to a third of a gram, which he sold for about $40.
Crown prosecutor Helen Huzzey asked for a 15-month jail sentence, while Namiranian's defence lawyer asked for a six-month term.
Namiranian has no previous criminal record.
His lawyer told the judge he had a gambling addiction at the time he was involved in the dial-a-dope operation.
Another man charged in the dial-a-dope operation, Preston Hammond, pled guilty to a charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking in Vancouver provincial court and was sentenced in April to year in jail.
A third man charged, Babak Taheripari, has a trial set for December in North Vancouver.
