EDMONTON, Alta. – In a recent Alberta court ruling, 43-year-old Kurt Elliott Miller was sentenced in Edmonton court to seven years in prison on a drug trafficking charge. The seven-year sentence is to be served consecutively to the eight-years he was handed in December 2022 in a Saskatoon court, also on drug trafficking charges. This means Miller will serve 15 years.
Miller had accumulated the Alberta drug trafficking charge when he was wanted by Saskatchewan police after he skipped out on his sentencing hearing in North Battleford Provincial Court February 2022. He had been granted bail to “get his affairs in order” before he was to receive a lengthy prison sentence, but instead, he went on the run and racked up the additional drug trafficking charge in Alberta.
Miller managed to evade authorities for 10 months until Saskatchewan RCMP’s elite Warrant and Enforcement Team [WEST] started to search for him.
On Nov. 1, 2022, RCMP WEST, as well as officers from Moose Jaw RCMP Crime Reduction Team, and Saskatoon F-SOC, headed to Red Deer, Alta., and worked in collaboration with Red Deer ALERT [Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team]. The different police agencies in Saskatchewan and Alberta worked together and determined Miller was in Edmonton.
The next day, acting on intel, RCMP WEST deployed to Edmonton to track down Miller. They found him within a day, and on Nov. 3, 2022, RCMP WEST stopped a vehicle on Whyte Avenue. Miller was in the back seat, and in the vehicle, police found a suitcase and duffle bag containing drug preparation equipment and approximately 10.6 kg of Fentanyl.
Miller was arrested and taken back to Saskatchewan where he was sentenced the following month in Saskatoon Provincial Court to eight years in prison.
The Saskatchewan charges stemmed from a May 2020 Regina traffic stop and a raid of Miller’s rural property north of Biggar where an RCMP officer was shot.
In the Regina traffic stop, Miller was charged with trafficking cocaine, trafficking methamphetamine, possession of fentanyl, methamphetamine, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000, and breach of probation.
After the Regina traffic stop, the Saskatchewan RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit raided Miller’s property in the R. M. of Glenside. Miller was then additionally charged with possession of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, alazopram (Xanax), gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for the purpose of trafficking, and 16 weapons-related offences.
In both the Regina traffic stop and raid north of Biggar, police seized 1,000 grams of methamphetamine, 444 grams of fentanyl, 3,035 ml of gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), 500 alazopram (Xanax) pills, 400 tabs of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), $16,080 in cash, two money counters, scales, packaging for drugs, eight cell phones, several computers and tablets, a semi-automatic assault rifle, a shotgun, a sawed-off double barrel shot gun, a spent light anti-tank weapon, a revolver, and body armour.
At the rural property, Mitch Hutchinson was also arrested. Hutchinson was sentenced to seven years in prison in Saskatoon Provincial Court in July 2020 after he pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded prohibited firearm, possession of a firearm loaded with ammunition, and four counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking fentanyl, GHB, LSD and meth.
During Hutchinson’s sentencing hearing, he admitted to shooting an RCMP officer when they had surrounded the rural home. His lawyer told the court that it was dark, he couldn't see, and thought the officer was a coyote. The officer was treated immediately for minor injuries. Hutchinson surrendered shortly after shooting the officer. Court heard that Hutchinson sold drugs and it was his job to protect the rural house and property owned by Miller.
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