SASKATCHEWAN – A high-ranking Westside Outlawz street gang member from Onion Lake Cree Nation was able to run his major drug trafficking operation while behind bars in Prince Albert with the help of Shania Yooya on the outside, court heard.
A sentencing hearing was held in a Saskatchewan court Tuesday for Yooya, now 27, on a charge of trafficking drugs for a criminal organization. Judge Sanjeev Anand accepted a joint submission to the court by defence counsel Carl Swenson and Crown Prosecutor Carla Dewar.
“He was able to run his drug business while he was in custody,” said Dewar.
Court heard that he would not have been able to run his drug business from behind bars without Yooya’s help. He told Yooya where to go, what to do, the quality of the drugs, had her collect debts, and threaten people.
The high-ranking Westside Outlawz gang member was in daily contact with Yooya and was able to call her more than 800 times by using other inmate’s phone time. His position within the street gang allowed him to do that, court heard.
Dewar said that Yooya has been on strict bail conditions the past three years and she doesn’t have any breaches, has stayed away from other gang members, and is getting addictions treatment and counselling.
Swenson told the court that Yooya had become involved with Westside Outlawz after she had succumbed to drug addiction. She lost custody of her child and wants to rebuild her life.
In accepting the Crown and defence’s joint sentencing submission for a one year conditional jail sentence, Judge Anand said he took into consideration her significant Gladue factors, her lack of a prior criminal record, and her post offence conduct of abiding by her release conditions.
“The sentence proposed is not contrary to the public interest,” said Judge Anand.
Appearing in court in person, Yooya sat with a face mask covering most of her face.
Yooya was ordered to provide her DNA to a Saskatchewan police station, not possess any weapons, not consume drugs or alcohol, participate in counselling as ordered by her probation officer, and not to have any contact with any known Westside Outlawz street gang members.
Yooya was arrested in in April 2020 following a lengthy investigation by the RCMP gang unit into organized crime in Prince Albert and several communities in the area. The RCMP Prince Albert Crime Reduction Team was assisted by officers from the Prince Albert RCMP Detachment, Prince Albert Police Service and Saskatoon Police Service.
Yooya was originally charged with uttering threats in association with, for the benefit of or at the direction of a criminal organization, trafficking a controlled substance in association with, for the benefit of or at the direction of a criminal organization, conspiracy to commit assault in association with, for the benefit of or at the direction of a criminal organization, unsafe storage of a firearm, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of a restricted firearm with ammunition without a license, possession of a firearm with a tampered serial number, trafficking methamphetamine, obstruction of justice, and fabricating evidence.
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