A convicted Fort St. John fentanyl dealer on the run from the law for more than a year has finally been arrested.
RCMP confirm Dana Nazarek was arrested by the Vancouver Police Department early Friday morning.
"On August 5, 2022, in the early hours of the morning, VPD officers conducting proactive patrols came upon a group of people in the Southeast district of Vancouver who may have been involved in a fight," Fort St. John RCMP said in a release. "VPD officers spoke with the persons on scene and located Nazarek who had an outstanding Canada-wide warrant.
"Nazarek was arrested and has been held for court," police said.
Nazarek was wanted on the Canada-wide warrant after he cut his ankle monitor and went on the run before a BC Supreme Court trial appearance in Vancouver on drug trafficking charges in June 2021.
The next day, a jury found him guilty on six counts of trafficking and four counts of illegal weapons possession, the charges stemming from a police raid on his home in Fort St. John in 2018. During the raid, RCMP seized 800 fentanyl tablets as well as carfentanil, cocaine, meth, heroin, five loaded firearms, and $38,000 in cash.
The 51-year-old pleaded not guilty and was released on strict bail conditions to a halfway house in Surrey before his trial and eventual escape from custody last year. At the time of his escape, he was subject to electronic monitoring as a condition of his bail.
Nazarek remains in custody and will appear in BC Supreme Court on Monday morning to fix a date for sentencing or bail hearing on his absconded drug charges, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
He will appear in provincial court later that afternoon to fix a date for a bail hearing on new charges of failing to appear, mischief, and breaching release orders.
Nazarek was previously convicted and sentenced to 40 months in prison after police raided his Fort St. John home and seized more than 2,000 fentanyl pills disguised as Oxycontin in December 2013.
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