A pair of brothers from Chatham-Kent will be spending the next few Christmases in a penitentiary for masterminding a "high-level" drug operation in Chatham-Kent.
A joint sentencing submission was heard in Chatham court on Tuesday during the hearing of Jonathan and Kyle Toornstra. It would have Jonathan serve another eight years behind bars, and his brother Kyle seven years in prison.
The formal sentencing will be held in Chatham court on January 7, 2026.
The sentencing agreement comes after guilty pleas were entered in Chatham Superior Court on September 5, 2025, following a $500,000 drug bust in Chatham in 2023.
The Toornstras were to have a five-day trial in September, but it didn't proceed due to the guilty pleas.
Chatham-Kent police searched a home on McFadden Avenue in 2023, as well as the homeowner’s vehicle and a storage unit on Queens Line, and discovered nearly $500,000 in cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and other controlled substances.
A total of 17 drug and weapons-related charges were laid in this case.
Kyle Toornstra, of Chatham, was charged with six counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, five counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, and careless storage of a firearm.
Jonathan Toornstra, originally of Dresden, was charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
The 2023 drug seizure led to an additional search warrant for the Collins Bay Correctional Facility in Kingston, where Jonathan Toornstra was already serving a 10-year sentence after being convicted in connection with a $2.6 million drug bust in 2019. It was Chatham-Kent's largest ever drug seizure.
He has another year left in that sentence, and the new sentence will kick in directly after that.
Justice Brian Dube told the Toornstra brothers that they are getting the benefit of a "very lenient sentence", partly because they pleaded guilty and saved the court time and money on a trial.
Justice Dube also noted the brothers were motivated by "greed and oversized egos."
