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Surrey dial-a-dope seller gets six months jail

Quoc Hung Le sold cocaine to police in 2011, was convicted last year.
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A man who sold $200 worth of cocaine to an undercover police officer in Surrey in 2011 has been sentenced to six months in jail and is banned from owning weapons for 10 years.

Quoc Hung Le was sentenced last month after being found guilty a year ago of possessing and trafficking cocaine.

In March 2011, police decided to try calling a dial-a-dope drug dealer after a tipster left a phone number with Crime Stoppers.

An officer, posing as a drug buyer, asked the man who answered the phone if he could "hook" him up. The man, later identified as Le, answered yes and the officer asked for an eight-ball of cocaine and negotiated he'd pay $200.

They planned to meet at the intersection of 96 Avenue and 156 Street 15 minutes later. The drugs-for-money transaction took place and Le, who was then 31, was arrested.

Le was not known to police at the time and had no prior criminal record.

The Crown had asked for an eight-month sentence, while the defence recommended a two-year conditional sentence in lieu of jail time.

"I am satisfied that a sentence of incarceration is a fit and proper sentence in this case and that a conditional sentence would not meet the principles of sentencing…" said Justice Kenneth Ball, noting the sentence was at the lower end of the acceptable range because it was Le's first offence.