Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jun 2002
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Mike Carter, Seattle Times

HUGE COCAINE BUST PROVING HOLLOW VICTORY FOR AUTHORITIES

VICTORIA, B.C. It could have been an unprecedented law-enforcement victory: 
Last year's seizure by U.S. agents of more than 2 tons of pure cocaine 
aboard a Canadian fishing boat off Washington's Cape Alava was the biggest 
drug bust ever in the Pacific Northwest.

But more than 16 months later, no one has been arrested or charged with a 
crime in the United States or Canada. The boat's captain - caught carrying 
more cocaine than is usually seized in all of Canada in a year - is 
protected from prosecution by the very system he betrayed.

And Canadian drug investigators missed a remarkable opportunity to break up 
one of the most massive cocaine financing and distribution rings in their 
country, one authorities say is run by British Columbia-based chapters of 
the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle gang.

Canadian authorities say the case is still open. But officials on both 
sides of the border are skeptical that charges ever will be filed against 
the bikers, financiers or anyone else responsible for the massive shipment.

Their sole comfort: $250 million worth of cocaine is off the streets.

"This case is a travesty," said Rodney Tureaud, special agent in charge of 
the U.S. Customs Service in Seattle, which handled the seizure. "Some 
inner-city kid goes to prison for 15 years over a few grams of crack while 
these jokers have 5,000 pounds of cocaine and are sleeping in their own beds."

U.S. officials and attorneys won't publicly comment because the case 
belongs to Canada, where the investigation originated. U.S. agents were 
called in hopes of salvaging the bust as it threatened to unravel.

Officials in Canada are mum, citing restrictions about discussing open 
investigations.

Court records and information obtained from the U.S. Coast Guard through 
the Freedom of Information Act provide some key details. The rest of the 
story - a bizarre tale of intrigue and informants, fumbles and frustrations 
- - is pieced together from interviews with more than a dozen individuals in 
both countries.

Most spoke only in exchange for anonymity, torn between not wanting to 
further strain U.S. and Canadian law-enforcement relations and the hope 
that publicity might prevent a repeat of the pileup of blunders.

The sources chronicled a troubled investigation, centered on the captain of 
the fishing vessel Western Wind, Philip John Stirling, 55, a scroungy 
fisherman, convicted drug dealer and small-time paid police informant from 
Victoria.

Stirling says he was a victim, caught in a squeeze between the Royal 
Canadian Mounted Police and the Hells Angels. The RCMP says Stirling lied 
to them, causing the Mounties to lose track of the investigation. 
Ultimately, frustrated U.S. agents seized the boat and drugs and detained 
the crew.

But between jurisdictional problems stemming from the unexpected seizure, 
and legal issues arising after U.S. officials finally learned Stirling had 
been an informant, American prosecutors abandoned the case and gave the 
boat's crew to Canada. After a few days, all were released.

"Here we had the most phenomenal case in my history," said a senior U.S. 
agent who was on the boat after it was boarded. "And you end up just 
walking away from it. There are days when you just want to beat your head 
against the wall."

Vessel Boarded

On the night of Feb. 21, 2001, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted and boarded 
the 88-foot Western Wind several miles off Cape Alava, the westernmost 
point in the continental U.S. A secret compartment in its bow was crammed 
with cocaine.

At the time, Canadian officials said that a member of that country's 
civilian Coast Watch program had reported "suspicious activity" on the 
vessel two months earlier. Canadians, the story went, had alerted the U.S. 
Coast Guard as a courtesy, and the boat's seizure was pure chance.

But in fact, the Mounties had known for months that the Western Wind was a 
smuggling boat, and that its owner and skipper, Stirling, an occasional 
RCMP informant, was acting as a middle man for Hells Angels chapters in 
Nanaimo and East End, B.C., and a Colombian drug cartel.

The Mounties have had little success in cracking the Hells Angel, thought 
to control much of the lucrative "B.C. Bud" marijuana and cocaine trade 
throughout the country.

Just a month after the bust of the Western Wind, the Canadian Department of 
Justice boasted of its first convictions in British Columbia of Hells 
Angels on drug charges; it took 25 officers and a yearlong investigation to 
nail the two bikers for possession of 6 ounces of cocaine.

Canadian sources say Stirling had been approached by a prison acquaintance 
who asked him to broker a cocaine deal between the Hells Angels and 
Colombians. He told Mounties about the deal to get out of criminal charges 
stemming from his 1999 arrest for possession of 500 pounds of marijuana.

Stirling offered to serve as a RCMP snitch in return for $1 million and 
witness protection for himself and his family.

But Stirling claims the Mounties initiated the deal - and later reneged.

He says they told him his ex-con friend would ask him to broker a deal for 
the Hells Angels, and they wanted him to go along. In return, they promised 
to buy his businesses and home in Canada and set him up in Hawaii.

"I was squeezed," Stirling said in a recent interview in front of his 
impressive cedar and river rock home in a secluded and heavily forested 
area of British Columbia. "They set it up."

Whoever originated the deal, one was struck. So in late November 2000, 
Stirling bought the Western Wind for $100,000 - money agents think was 
provided by the Hells Angels - and began modifications to its bow fuel 
tanks for smuggling the cocaine.

Plan Rejected

The bust was planned as a textbook "controlled delivery." Stirling would 
pilot the vessel to Colombia to pick up the drugs, then return to Victoria 
to meet the buyers. He would tip authorities to the time and place of the buy.

Investigators then hoped to use the threat of criminal prosecution against 
the buyers to lead them further up the drug-distribution chain to the 
financiers, who had put up as much as $40 million to buy drugs worth six or 
seven times that on the streets.

If things worked, Stirling would not have to testify but could simply 
disappear with his snitch money.

"There was no downside," said one source. "They (Canadian authorities) get 
the dope, they get the buyers, they get a line on the distributors and the 
money men. All for $1 million. It was a bargain."

But as agents proceeded with their investigation, including a series of 
wiretaps, Stirling's proposed $1 million payout was nixed by then-Inspector 
Richard Barszczewski, who was in charge of the RCMP's Drug Enforcement 
Branch in British Columbia.

It's not clear why he scrubbed the plan. "Everybody was absolutely taken 
aback," said one source.

Barszczewski, now a superintendent in charge of RCMP support services in 
British Columbia, declined several requests to comment. He referred 
questions to Carl Busson, chief of the Drug Enforcement Branch.

"There were reasons that decisions were made," said Busson, though he 
declined to elaborate. "Hindsight is always 20-20."

Not everybody in the RCMP is so circumspect. "There may very well have been 
opportunities that were missed," said RCMP narcotics Sgt. Mike Dunbar, 
declining to elaborate.

Telephone messages left with Assistant Superintendent Garry Bass, who heads 
the RCMP Criminal Division in British Columbia, and Beverly Busson, the 
RCMP deputy commissioner in Vancouver, were returned by media-relation 
officers who declined to discuss the case.

Too Late To Stop

By the time Stirling learned the deal with the Mounties was rejected, he 
had already negotiated the tricky drug exchange with the Hells Angels and 
the Colombians. Once in, it was "too late to get out," he said.

"It wasn't like I could just walk away," said Stirling, who said his role 
was tantamount to being "the FedEx man."

But law-enforcement sources say Stirling never told them he was being 
pressured to carry out the drug exchange. So a month later, when Stirling 
said he was taking his new boat tuna fishing, RCMP agents had little choice 
but to take his word -- and warn him against any shenanigans.

About a month after that, in the pitch black of night off the coast of 
Colombia, three deckhands aboard the Western Wind were ordered below deck 
by Stirling and his engineer, according to statements made by some members 
of the crew to investigators and others.

According to those statements, when the men came back up, there was another 
ship alongside, its crew armed with assault rifles. The Western Wind 
sailors were told to stow several dozen heavy burlap-wrapped bundles, each 
marked "Azucar" - sugar.

Stirling, armed with a handgun and shotgun, warned his crew members that 
they were in this now, like it or not, according to one of the deckhands' 
statements.

After the drugs were stored, the Western Wind fished its way north, filling 
the freezer with tuna as a cover, according to documents filed in U.S. 
District Court in Seattle by federal prosecutors.

Stirling insists that when he left Canada, he really was going fishing. He 
followed the coast to San Diego and was about to turn west "toward Tahiti" 
when he said he received e-mail on the ship's computer - he didn't say from 
whom - ordering him to continue to Colombia to collect the cocaine.

"They said they'd kill my family," Stirling said.

He admits he picked up the drugs. "But I was going to pull into Victoria 
harbor and call the RCMP," he said. "I didn't want anything to do with this."

Investigators are skeptical. If Stirling felt threatened, he could have 
e-mailed for help.

Moreover, Custom's agents seized the boat's onboard computer, according to 
a search warrant filed in federal court in Seattle. Sources confirmed that 
no threatening e-mail was found.

In early February 2001, Mounties were stunned to learn that the Western 
Wind was on its way to Victoria with a load of cocaine. The tip came from 
the Organized Crime Agency of British Columbia (OCABC), which had been 
established to battle outlaw bikers and their takeover of the burgeoning 
"B.C. Bud" trade.

"It caught them (the Mounties) totally by surprise," said the source. 
"There were a few people ... who were quite embarrassed."

Call To U.S. Agencies

The Mounties scrambled to resurrect their original plan. They launched a 
plane to scout for the Western Wind but feared the boat and its cargo would 
get to British Columbia - and into the hands of the Hells Angels - before 
the agents were ready.

Desperate, they asked U.S. Customs and the Coast Guard to intercept the 
Western Wind to buy them time to regroup.

Ironically, the situation was potentially better for the Mounties, who now 
had leverage against Stirling. If they caught him with an immense load of 
dope, they could enlist his help and force him to testify in exchange for 
witness protection - but no cash.

On Feb. 21, the boat was sighted in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, off Cape 
Alava. Three U.S. Coast Guard cutters closed in. U.S. agents were soon 
joined by Mounties, including a representative from Canada's Source-Witness 
Protection Program.

Stirling did not ask the authorities to help him out of his dilemma but, 
according to the report, lied, saying all he was hauling was fish. It took 
investigators more than two hours to find the hidden compartments - and the 
cocaine.

They also found notes in Stirling's quarters outlining how to transmit and 
receive coded e-mail. Also, "the notes found in the captain's quarters 
outline the exact location of the 'at-sea' pickup point for the cocaine 
(and) the exact date for the pickup," wrote senior Customs special agent 
Donald Bambenek in a search-warrant affidavit.

Authorities on board hatched an impromptu plan: They would have Stirling 
e-mail the buyers, setting a new meeting place and delaying the exchange by 
two days. That would give the RCMP time to get in place to make arrests.

According to several sources, Stirling was given a choice: He could become 
an agent of the RCMP and testify against the drug buyers in exchange for 
witness protection. Or he'd be arrested.

"It didn't take too much to convince him that this deal was in his best 
interest," said one source.

Third Option

The Mounties were now poised to salvage their investigation. But when they 
called to clear the plan with Inspector Barszczewski, the drug-section 
chief who had blocked the earlier effort to recruit Stirling, he again 
withheld his sanction. And without a guarantee of witness protection, 
Stirling refused to cooperate.

That left the agents little room to maneuver. They could release the boat, 
then scramble to track it and, with luck, raid it when the buyers came for 
their drugs.

Or they could seize the drugs but likely lose the buyers and distributors.

Finally, frustrated U.S. agents reluctantly proposed a third option, 
according to law-enforcement sources on both sides of the border. The Drug 
Enforcement Agency had the personnel and resources to mount a controlled 
delivery almost immediately. But the U.S. agents needed Canadian approval 
to conduct the operation because it would take them across the border.

For the third time, Canadian officials balked. They cited a policy that 
prohibits foreign law-enforcement officials from entering Canadian 
territory while armed.

That was a red light for the Americans. "There was no way our guys were 
going to go up there and face down the Hells Angels without being able to 
protect themselves," said a U.S. law-enforcement source.

Unwilling to lose the drugs, the Americans seized the Western Wind and its 
cargo of 5,500 pounds of coke. The crew was detained by the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service and the boat was escorted to Port Angeles.

Information Withheld

The drugs were out of circulation. But the unanticipated seizure would pose 
a number of problems for federal prosecutors in Seattle, who wanted someone 
to pay for the smuggling attempt. Canada proved another legal obstacle.

RCMP agents wouldn't explain their relationship with Stirling, citing 
Canada's strict laws on privilege and protection for informants.

"We could not get the Canadians to provide us with the informant file," a 
source said. "That is information that we would have been obligated to turn 
over to the defense if we charged him. Without it, we couldn't move 
forward. It was extremely frustrating."

Conversely, Stirling's statements that he had been threatened after the $1 
million deal had fallen through gave him a possible defense: He could claim 
that he was acting under duress.

"We kept hoping and praying that (the Canadians) would get it together, but 
they couldn't," the source said.

There were other incidents that baffled the Americans. After the crew was 
in custody, the RCMP flew Stirling's Canadian attorney, Jennifer McCormick, 
to Port Angeles to protect his interests - even though they blamed him for 
a double-cross.

In the end, it strained the cordial relations agents from both countries 
had enjoyed: When RCMP Sgt. Pat Convey, who was overseeing the 
investigation, flew to Port Angeles, the Americans let him wait for nearly 
three hours.

To make matters worse, federal prosecutors couldn't show that any of the 
drugs were destined for the U.S. The cocaine was on a Canadian-flagged 
ship, operated by Canadians and en route to Canada.

Rulings out of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have held that authorities 
must prove a connection between the U.S. and the drugs to justify prosecution.

So prosecutors here decided to destroy the drugs, keep the boat and let 
Canada handle the legal mess. Stirling and his crew were released Feb. 28 - 
just a week after the bust.

"We just weren't going to be sitting holding their dirty laundry," said one 
American official who was present at a meeting of U.S. prosecutors and 
Canadian and American agents.

Full Protection

In a last-ditch salvage effort, Canadian agents reportedly made one last 
bid for Stirling's cooperation. When he arrived back in Victoria, he was 
sequestered for several days as agents pressed him to identify others 
involved in the plot.

He claims he was held for 19 days without a lawyer and moved constantly 
from one hotel to another. But without the promise of witness protection, 
he refused to deal with the Mounties, and finally was let go.

Even so, Stirling's status as a one-time informant affords him the full 
protection of the Canadian legal system; the government won't do anything 
that will officially identify him as a snitch.

In the U.S., informants must do as they're told or they can lose their 
status and protection. But in Canada, once the protection is offered, it is 
never withdrawn.

Safe from legal prosecution, Stirling now says his life will be at risk if 
his cover as an informant is revealed. Yet he essentially admitted that 
role in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma when his company, 
Western Wind Fisheries, fought to block the U.S. forfeiture claim on the boat.

Never mind that the Western Wind was caught hauling 2-1/2 tons of cocaine. 
In court documents, Stirling asserted that "the vessel is not subject to 
forfeiture because claimant was acting at the behest of the government of 
Canada in furtherance of legitimate law enforcement goals."

Late last month, Stirling dropped his fight to reclaim the Western Wind. 
Stirling's Seattle lawyer, Rick Troberman, said his client didn't want to 
invite the danger that might come with publicity.
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