Though the Crown's suggestion of three years behind federal penitentiary bars is 'totally reasonable,' two young men who sold one pound (.45 kg) of cocaine to undercover drug cops don't need to spend time in jail, a territorial court judge said yesterday.

Instead Robert Bremner, 25, and Joel Cozens, 23, were each handed two-year conditional sentences. For the first nine months, both men will be under house arrest, forbidden from leaving their homes except to go to work or attend school.

A third man, 23-year-old Dustin Blackjack, was sentenced to a year in jail and one year of probation. He was given time served the 3 1/2 months he's been in custody for a pair of bail breaches.

A street-level dealer, Blackjack is the only of the three who was hooked on his product, an addiction he said he picked up a couple of years ago thanks to the girl he was dating at the time.

Blackjack simply isn't a candidate for a community sentence, deputy Judge Cunliffe Barnett said during the two-day sentencing that concluded Thursday afternoon.

The three men were arrested last spring after a 2 1/2-month undercover operation by the RCMP, who were looking to bust dealers operating out of local bars.

Prosecutor Peter LaPrairie asked that Bremner and Cozens be sent to a federal jail for three years. He'd argued, and Barnett agreed, each one should get the same sentence.

The court had heard that though Bremner has no prior criminal record, he was far more involved in the cocaine dealing than Cozens, who'd apparently been brought in the day before the May 9, 2003 sale to help make sure everything went smoothly.

Though Cozens was far less involved he said he agreed to help because Bremner would erase a $1,000-debt he owed for some furniture the young man has a criminal record and was on bail for drug and weapons offences out of Calgary. His trial on that matter is slated for June.

Barnett noted Bremner has support from a good family, was considered an excellent employee he's a bartender at the Capital Hotel, the same bar the prosecutor called 'ground zero in this case' and hasn't breached any bail conditions.

The judge also noted he was 'seriously impressed' that Cozens took the stand and explained himself under oath, telling the court he has plans to attend chef school and settle down with his girlfriend.

Cozens' family support also impressed the judge; both his girlfriend Kelly Wondga's family, who've taken him in, and the young man's father, Crown prosecutor Michael Cozens, told the court they'll continue to support the 22-year-old.

While studying at home and earning a high school diploma, the young man has done repairs and helped out around the Wondga's home to pay his way, the court heard. He too has toed the line of his bail conditions, conditions his lawyer suggested were tougher than most conditional sentences.

Throughout Joel's troubled adolescence, Michael Cozens told the court, he told himself if he could just keep his son alive long enough, the boy would eventually, hopefully, learn to think about consequences of his actions.

'I'm believing he's starting to want the right things,' he said of the changes he's seen in his son over the last year. 'I have hope for him.'

An Outside prosecutor handled the case because of the family connection. The senior Cozens' wife, Joel's stepmother, is also a local prosecutor.

In handing out the conditional sentences, Barnett said while three years' jail is supported by case law, he's required to consider whether that much jail is necessary for the two accused.

That answer, Barnett said, is no.

If he sent them off to a penitentiary, 'nobody should be under any illusions that they will learn good things there, learn a trade or come out better citizens,' Barnett said. 'We send a great deal of people to jail every year and they're not all country club kinds of places.

'I believe that both Mr. Cozens and Mr. Bremner are honest candidates for conditional sentences.'

The judge, who's been coming to the Yukon for 20 years, said he's seen the devastating effects of cocaine on the community.

He also said he knows that if Yukon offenders screw up on conditional terms, they'll be caught.

Of the trafficking trio, Blackjack was the first to sell to the undercover Mounties, introducing himself when they showed up in the Capital bar April 5, 2003.

After they asked where they could get some cocaine, Blackjack told the pair he had to wait until his contact, identified only as Joe, arrived. Once the man showed up and Blackjack spoke to him, the young man came back to the officers' table with the 'eightball', or 3.5 grams of coke, hidden in his hand.

The sergeant paid the agreed $300, and Blackjack gave his buyers two phone numbers where he could be reached.

Three days later, the officers were back at the Capital, asking Blackjack for another eightball. When the young dealer came back minutes later with the drugs in hand, the sergeant commented on how quick he'd been.

Blackjack told the undercover officer the drugs were kept under the bar, the prosecutor told the court, and he told the sergeant who'd mentioned he wanted to buy larger amounts he could help him out with future deals.

In another two days, the sergeant phoned Blackjack, asking to meet at the Capital to talk about buying even larger amounts.

While they drove through town, Blackjack told his buyer he normally only sold marijuana in bars, and that he only sold cocaine to relatives 'as it's a family business,' LaPrairie recounted.

The next day, Blackjack would introduce the undercover drug cops to Chris Holway, who at the time he said was his cousin, but was actually his girlfriend's cousin. The officers bought two ounces of cocaine from Holway at Holway's home April 12 for $3,800. Holway pleaded guilty last summer and is currently serving an 18-month jail term.

In the sergeant's vehicle that April 10, Blackjack sold an ounce of coke for $2,000, but said future ounces would go for $1,800.

When it was tested, the cocaine was about 78-per-cent pure, on the high end, the court heard.

Blackjack also admitted to breaching his recognizance twice. After being released initially, he was arrested and released again Dec. 12 into his father's custody.

On Dec. 31, Russell Blackjack, the corporal in charge of the Carmacks RCMP detachment, discovered his son had left through his bedroom window. The father called his counterparts in Carmacks, and an officer found the son, beer in hand, in the Carmacks Hotel bar.

Dustin Blackjack also failed a drug test for marijuana on Jan. 2. He's been in jail since.

Several weeks passed after the $2,000-sale before the officers returned in May, asking a Capital Hotel bartender identified only as Jeremy where Blackjack was, and when they learned he wasn't around, where they could buy some drugs.

Though Jeremy said he didn't know, the female undercover constable watched as he walked to the far end of the bar and spoke to Bremner, who approached and noted he'd been at Holway's home when they'd bought two ounces of cocaine.

He gave over his pager number, and suggested they call if they needed help finding drugs. When the sergeant queried whether that would upset Holway, Bremner said the other man was working for him.

Bremner, who suggested he could supply 91-per-cent pure cocaine, quoted a price of $24,000 per pound, plus $2,000, which he'd split with Holway for leaving him out of the deal.

After fruitlessly paging Bremner for a couple days, the officers caught up with him at the Capital, where Bremner apologized, saying he had 'trust issues,' and noting his supplier said the amount the officers wanted was too large for him.

Defence lawyer Dave St. Pierre noted that comment in his arguments for a lesser sentence, arguing that much of his client's talk about being able to sell large quantities was just that talk. He said Bremner had become involved in dealing initially by pointing buyers in the right direction through his job as a bartender. He then started arranging deals himself.

Through a complex system of pre-arranged pager codes, changing meeting places and driving off to hand over the drugs and money, Bremner sold the pair an ounce on May 4 before setting up a meeting in the Taku bar to discuss still larger amounts.

In that conversation, Bremner said his 'right hand man', Joel (Cozens), was arriving from Calgary and would help him complete the deal, something he'd done in the past.

Cozens' lawyer, Nils Clarke, said those suggestions are categorically denied.

Though they discussed the price for one pound of cocaine, Bremner also told the pair of undercover officers he could possibly do a 'brick', or kilogram, of the drug as well.

On May 9, after entering the pre-arranged code in Bremner's pager, the two officers met Bremner and Cozens at the Wolf Creek Campground. The female constable and Bremner drove down the highway and down a logging road to pick up the drugs, stashed in the bush in a brown paper bag, while the sergeant and Cozens stayed behind to count out the agreed price of $26,000 cash. The constable called her partner on a cell phone once she had the drugs.

After further conversation about buying drugs, the group split up.

The next day when the officers arrived at the Capital while Bremner was tending bar, the young man said a male in a Subaru vehicle had been spotted nodding to the officers as they passed, and that some of the bills appeared to have been marked.

Telling them he was getting cold feet and 'had a lot to lose,' Bremner said he was backing out of future deals. He was becoming concerned the people he was dealing to were cops, LaPrairie said.