Team Cheese members sentenced to prison

Under the banner of the Native Syndicate (NS) street gang, a local unit dubbed Team Cheese spent the early part of 2016 using tactics like kidnapping, robbery, assault and extortion to meet its own ends.

Now six members of the group — including its leader — have been handed a combined 30 years in prison.

Going by the street name Cheese or Chuck, 36-year-old Jeremy John Arnold led the unit — a selfcontained branch of Regina’s NS chapter — and was at times believed to be the highest-ranking member in the city.

With Arnold at the head, Team Cheese embarked on a rash of incidents so violent they attracted the attention of police, with members of the Regina Police Service launching an investigation dubbed Project SHRED.

It would eventually net 14 arrests, including several upperlevel members. Although several remain before the court, those sentenced this week were said to represent the core of Team Cheese.

Arnold received a total sevenyear sentence less remand credit, having pleaded guilty to robberies, extortion, conspiracy and instructing a criminal organization. Also sentenced was his wife, 34-yearold Sabiha Bird, who received 18 months; Arnold’s higher-up in the NS, 41-year-old Arden Felix Panipekeesick, handed four years, 3½ months less credit; 31-year-old Justin Ray McKay who got four years less credit; 25-year-old James Dean Pratt who received five years less credit; and 21-yearold Keagan (also spelled Keegan in court documents) Panipekeesick, handed the equivalent of a nineyear sentence. Keagan’s sentence also takes into account a violent home invasion involving the discharge of a firearm unrelated to the SHRED investigation.

In proceedings that spanned three days, co-Crown prosecutors Adam Breker, Leona Andrews and David Zeggelaar outlined the findings of the investigation, which uncovered how drug trafficker and user Arnold and his team had used violent tactics to deal with users and dealers believed to owe debts and taxes to the organization.

Court heard about several incidents, including one from April 2016 in which a trafficker angered Arnold when it was discovered he was operating his own phone line. After a tense encounter with members of Team Cheese, the man drove to Saskatoon to speak with Arden Panipekeesick in the hopes the higher-level member could solve the problem for him.

Arden drove back to Regina with the man but, instead of solving the issue, the man was grabbed by the throat, robbed of a watch and necklace and told to get out.

Two other men working for or with Arnold as dealers — as well as one man known simply for having a high-dosage prescription to hydromorphone — also found themselves on the wrong side of Team Cheese during March and April 2016.

One dealer, deemed to owe a debt, was beaten by several members of the group after he drove to a house in the belief he was to give someone a ride to a doctor’s office.

Another dealer, also a heavy user, was targeted for owing a large debt. Court heard he was taken to a house and beaten until his spouse intervened. He was forced to turn over his vehicle and other items, Arnold holding a knife to him and saying he’d “put a smile” on his face if he crossed him again. Meanwhile, his spouse was made to sell drugs for a number of hours to pay the remainder of the debt.

In another incident, the team went after the man with the prescription, beating him and holding him against his will overnight. During the night, the man witnessed another male being beaten and was made to clean up the blood.

In the morning, the man was taken to a doctor’s office to try to obtain a further prescription, but he was able to alert staff to his predicament, bringing police to his rescue.

Court heard the other man who had been at the house that night was dropped off at hospital by Arnold and Bird, having suffered significant injuries.