A 28-year-old man was sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to a number of drug and gun charges related to a mid-level trafficking operation in Greater Victoria.
On August 5th, BC Supreme Court Justice K. Wolfe sentenced Jesse Cameron Draves to 10 years. With credit for time served after he was arrested in May 2023, Draves will spend just under eight more years behind bars.
Charges resulted from a West Shore RCMP investigation that spanned from February to May 2023.
Police had been monitoring Draves and had linked him to two storage lockers, one in Victoria and one in Langford, and his residence in Malahat.
Search warrants were executed at all three locations where a large quantity of drugs, currency and firearms were discovered.
Overall, police seized 470 grams of fentanyl, 2.16 kilograms of meth, 253 grams of cocaine, 15.4 liters of GHB, and 1.5 kilograms of MDMA. Police also recovered a loaded Desert Eagle handgun, a Colt M4 automatic rifle, a high-capacity magazine, thousands of rounds of ammunition and more than $7,000 in cash.
The court heard that Draves became involved in drug trafficking, in part, due to his own addiction that began after he became homeless as a teenager. Tragically, Draves grew up in and out of 15 foster homes after he was surrendered to the Ministry of Children and Family Development when he was 10 years old.
While in custody, Draves has completed programs, such as parenting courses and anger management, and more recently, earned his GED. He told the court he wants to make a better life for himself and his three children, who remain in the care of family friends after their mother—who was Draves’ partner—died of a drug overdose in 2024.
Justice Wolfe accepted a joint submission on sentencing from Crown and defence, stating that trafficking fentanyl in association with firearms is among the worst types of criminal conduct.
Justice Wolfe imposed a global sentence of 10 years and also imposed a lifetime firearm prohibition, a DNA order, and forfeited all property related to the charges.
“The combination of drugs and guns in a mid-level, for-profit trafficking operation poses a serious threat to public safety,” Wolfe said.
At the same time, she expressed cautious optimism about Draves’ efforts toward rehabilitation.
