Whitehorse man pleads guilty to drug, gun charges related to 2023 police raid near Takhini Hot Springs | CBC News
A Whitehorse man has pleaded guilty to four of the 35 charges laid against him after a police raid of his residence last year uncovered 11 firearms and more than two kilograms of illicit drugs.
Taylor Duke entered guilty pleas in Whitehorse Territorial Court Tuesday to one count each of possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing p-fluorofentanyl, an opioid similar to fentanyl, for the purpose of trafficking. He also pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm obtained by the commission of an offence and possessing a firearm while being prohibited from doing so.
Duke’s plea came on what was supposed to be the second day of his trial. Proceedings were adjourned Monday after Judge Elaine Cairns tossed a portion of cell phone evidence in the case, finding that police had improperly obtained a search warrant for that information.
According to an agreed statement of facts Crown attorney Madeleine Williams read to the court following Duke’s pleas, Whitehorse RCMP were investigating a shooting that had happened on Long Lake Road in July 2023, in which Duke was one of the suspects.
Investigators learned through “cell phone tracking data, surveillance and further investigative steps” that Duke was living under a false name on Takhini Meadows Drive, in the Takhini Hot Spring area. They obtained a search warrant for the property and executed it on Aug. 23, 2023, also arresting Duke in the process.
Officers “discovered a large number of firearms, a large quantity of suspected controlled substances and a significant sum of Canadian currency” inside the residence, the facts continue.
In total, police seized six prohibited, two restricted and three non-restricted firearms from the home, along with seven “prohibited devices” mainly consisting of detachable cartridge magazines and a suppressor. The prohibited firearms included an AR-15 and Derya model MK-12 semi-automatic shotgun, while the restricted and non-restricted firearms included a handgun made of 3D-printed and commercially available parts and a Hatsan model Escort pump-action shotgun, respectively.
Duke, at the time, did not have firearm registration certificates or a gun licence, and was also under bail conditions that prohibited him from possessing any firearms.
Along with the firearms, the agreed statement of facts says the RCMP seized illicit drugs from a safe in the second bedroom that were intended for trafficking. The drugs included just more than 1.4 kilograms of cocaine later found to be between 91- to 92-per-cent purity, an additional 123.81 grams of cocaine, 126.57 grams of fentanyl and etizolam, 636.13 grams of p-fluorofentanyl and 452 tablets labelled “XANAX” that contained flualprazolam.
Etizolam and flualprazolam are both benzodiazepines.
Police also seized $160,557.61 in cash as well as cellphones and “drug trafficking paraphernalia” from the home, and found an ATV outside that had been stolen from Air North in 2019.
The Crown and defence agreed to adjourn the proceedings after Williams finished reading the facts. They’ll pick Duke’s sentencing date later this month.
Duke was sentenced earlier this year in relation to a plot to traffic cocaine into the Whitehorse Correctional Centre. He remains in custody on both cases as well as allegations related to a drug bust in Dawson City.
