A former restaurateur caught in an Edmonton police stolen liquor sting has been ordered to pay a $10,000 fine or risk jail time.
Steven Rameh Dahrouge was in court Monday to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge for his role in buying and reselling purportedly stolen liquor in 2021 and 2022.
In fact, the liquor was bait, and the sellers of the merchandise were undercover Edmonton Police Service officers.
Dahrouge was among 10 people charged in the sting, which police said uncovered a major stolen booze network that supplied local businesses — some of which held liquor licences. Some of the businesses likely knew they were buying illegitimately obtained product, police said at the time.
According to an agreed statement of facts read into the record by prosecutor Jim Stewart, police launched an investigation in early 2021 to determine the aftermarket for stolen liquor. Police officials have repeatedly warned of a rise in alcohol theft, saying the service responds to an average of 15 calls a day related to thefts from liquor stores.
As part of the 2021 probe, an unidentified Alberta wholesaler donated several hundred cases of liquor — bottles which were marked so investigators could identify them after reselling them into the black market. The undercover officers posed as truckers who had access to large amounts of stolen liquor. The targets were “prolific” liquor thieves spotted stealing cases of alcohol on CCTV footage.
“The plan was to pose as bulk sellers of stolen liquor and see where the referrals took them,” the agreed facts state.
Police were initially referred to a man who agreed to buy 26 cases of liquor for $125 a case. An associate of the man arranged to meet with the undercover officers and bought the 26 cases for $3,200 on the spot. They decided to meet again on Dec. 29, 2021, to buy more.
Dahrouge attended that meeting, where he and two other associates agreed to purchase 1,800 cases of liquor for $150,000, in two instalments.
Dahrouge and his two associates agreed to pick up the first shipment the following month in Langham, Sask., a town outside Saskatoon. They brought a U-Haul trailer and paid $30,000 for 300 cases, which they took to Edmonton and locked in a storage unit.
One of Dahrouge’s associates was later spotted at the storage unit filling his pickup truck with cases of the supposedly stolen liquor. He was seen unloading some of the cases into an SUV owned by Dahrouge, who drove to Italian restaurant Pazzo Pazzo, where he allegedly met with the restaurant’s owner and loaded several cases into that person’s vehicle.
Dahrouge and the associate were seen on other occasions selling the stolen liquor to people and businesses in and around Edmonton.
The undercover officers later met with all four of their contacts, including Dahrouge, to arrange for the sale of the remaining 1,500 cases. Bottles with the special markings were later purchased from Bon Liquor, a licensed liquor store in Edmonton.
Bon Liquor and Pazzo Pazzo Restaurant Inc. are among three businesses charged with unlawfully attempting to possess property obtained by crime for the purpose of trafficking under $5,000.
The Dahrouge group and the undercover officers later arranged one more transaction: 1,368 cases of liquor for $110,000 and three master cases of cigarettes containing 37,500 unstamped smokes.
Stewart and defence lawyer William Jessop agreed to a joint sentencing submission including a two-year conditional sentence order and a $10,000 fine.
Under the terms of the order, Dahrouge, 41, will be subject to conditions including reporting to a supervisor.
Crown and defence agreed Dahrouge should be given until fall 2028 to pay the fine. If he fails to pay, he could face 83 days in jail, Stewart said.
“This is an amount of money that will hurt him, but he will be able to pay it if you’re generous in the amount of time to pay it,” Stewart told Court of King’s Bench Justice Anna Loparco, who agreed to the sentence.
Dahrouge lives in Gibbons — just northeast of Edmonton — and has a “minor and dated” criminal record, Stewart said.
Jessop said his client is married and has a child. He previously worked in the restaurant industry, including at a steak and pizza restaurant in Valleyview.
He is confident Dahrouge will pay the fine.
“He knows jail awaits if he defaults.”
Three others charged in the case — James Cermak, Julien Roussel and Cara Yaremchuk — are set to begin trial Monday.
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