‘Unrepentant drug dealer’ sentenced to 18 years for participation in interprovincial trafficking ring

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in an interprovincial drug network that provided Manitoba RCMP with its largest-ever drug seizure.

Andre Omar Steele, 44, previously pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and trafficking firearms.

Steele has been mired in gangs and drug trafficking his entire adult life and been in and out of prison multiple times. At a recent hearing for sentencing submissions, Steele — as he had done several times before — told court he wanted to change his life, noting the deaths of friends and a former partner.

“Hopefully, these tragic losses will serve to alter the consciousness of someone who, up to now, has operated as an unrepentant drug dealer and glorified in the lifestyle it afforded him,” said King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey.

Steele was one of nearly two dozen people arrested in February 2022 when Manitoba RCMP took down five Canadian and international drug networks in a wide-reaching probe dubbed Project Divergent, which began in 2018.

As part of the investigation, RCMP seized 110 kilograms of cocaine, more than 40 kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of fentanyl and 500 grams of MDMA. Police also seized 19 guns and more than $445,000 in cash.

Steele’s arrest was the result of evidence provided by a career criminal turned police informant — identified only as Agent 66 — who was paid more than $900,000 to ensnare criminal targets and testify at their trials.

Agent 66 — who had met Steele during an earlier stint in jail together — started making lower-quantity drug purchases from Steele in September 2020, including the purchase of 454 grams (16 ounces) of methamphetamine for $19,000.

Agent 66 — in cellphone conversations recorded by police — told Steele he wanted to start buying one or more kilograms of drugs each month, eventually persuading Steele to sell him access to his “source” for $10,000.

That introduction would take Agent 66 up the criminal chain and eventually lead to a December 2021 meeting at a Montreal restaurant with full-patch B.C. Hells Angel Damion Ryan, a high-level player in the Wolf Pack Alliance organized-crime group.

Agent 66 introduced Steele to an undercover RCMP officer who wanted to buy firearms. Steele sold the officer three semi-automatic rifles and a pistol for $14,000.

Steele was arrested by Winnipeg police for multiple drug and weapon offences in March 2021. Agent 66 and Steele — who also identified as being a member of the Wolf Pack — continued to make drug deals and negotiate meetings even while Steele was in jail, where court heard he continued to make up to $10,000 a month.

Police were granted a production order for Steele’s phone records in jail between July 6 and Nov. 1, 2021. A review of 1,500 calls revealed his girlfriend and another woman were facilitating three-way calls with his drug suppliers and dealers.

“The institutional phone records illustrate that Steele was able to source methamphetamine at multi-ounce and multi-kilogram levels,” and fentanyl and cocaine at multi-ounce levels, McKelvey said.

“Many of Steele’s contacts who sold drugs on his behalf were single mothers who he said were focused on making money, rather than a man who would want to be a gangster,” she said.

Phone calls captured Steele threatening to arrange violent retribution against those who owed him money or stole from him.

“It was apparent during the course of the telephone calls that Steele regularly discussed his intention to continue running his trafficking operation from the penitentiary,” McKelvey said. “He wanted to be a ‘gangster for life’ and was proud of what he had accomplished.”

On Monday, Ryan was found guilty of three counts of conspiracy to traffic in drugs, and one count each of conspiracy to possess proceeds of crime and conspiracy in benefit of a criminal organization. He will be sentenced at a later date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca