Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jul 2002
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2002 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Adrian Humphreys, National Post
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

POLICE BUST INTERNATIONAL DRUG RING

$95M in Drugs Seized

Police in three provinces seized more than $95-million worth of high-demand 
drugs and arrested dozens of men and women who allegedly co-operated to 
bring the immense haul into Canada by air, land and sea.

Heralding the operation as one of the widest police dragnets against 
organized crime in Canada, police officials say they dismantled four crime 
groups in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton that allegedly worked to 
bring cocaine and hashish along a complicated path from South America and 
the Caribbean to Canadian streets.

"We have arrested over 35 individuals, all significant players at all 
levels in their criminal network -- these were the upper echelons, the 
importers, the facilitators, the dealers," said RCMP Inspector Linda Martell.

Arrested yesterday were employees at the port in Halifax, a union member 
who unloads the ships, a prominent associate of the Hells Angels motorcycle 
gang in Quebec, a man with links to Mafia groups in Ontario, several career 
criminals, others with no criminal past and people ranging in age from 22 
to 71.

The diverse group represents the new face of organized crime, police said.

"Organized crime is no longer working in isolated groups," said Insp. Martell.

"They work in what we have coined a virtual floating matrix. A complex 
infrastructure of networks and contacts that can work anywhere, anytime.

"They gather expertise from their resource pool, depending on the type of 
criminal enterprise they need to facilitate. They disperse when their goal 
is achieved and gather again, often times with different players."

The operation, announced with news conferences in Montreal, Halifax and 
Hamilton, pulls together a number of drug seizures from the last 18 months 
that police now say are intertwined.

There was cocaine and hash oil arriving from Jamaica aboard a small 
corporate jet that landed near Barrie, Ont.; there were huge bags of 
Colombian cocaine hidden in commercial containers arriving at the Halifax 
port; hash oil and marijuana found in a van stopped at midnight on a New 
Brunswick highway; and marijuana loaded on trucks in Quebec heading for the 
United States.

The operators had links to major drug barons in Colombia, Panama, Jamaica 
and Mexico, including Abraham Nasser, the alleged Colombian supplier, who 
is now wanted in Canada, police said.

Much of the cocaine, loaded into large hockey bags and designer suitcases, 
was smuggled into commercial shipping containers, likely during stopovers 
in Panama, on large ships that left from Chile, said Roy Jamieson, with 
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

After arriving in Halifax, it was intended to be smuggled off the docks, 
but Customs officials became suspicious of the containers and ordered a 
search, he said. Bags of cocaine were found among a shipment of carved wood 
planks.

More cocaine was to be smuggled into Canada aboard trucks to be driven from 
Mexico through the United States, an unusual route for traffickers who 
usually move drugs from Canada to the larger U.S. market.

Yesterday, police showed off part of their haul.

Cocaine, compressed into hundreds of one-kilo bricks that were branded with 
a symbol of its Columbian manufacturer -- a horseshoe on most, a triangle 
with three diamonds on others -- was under heavy guard at the RCMP's 
Hamilton office.

Each brick had been wrapped in multiple layers of cellophane wrap, plastic 
bags, rubber sheets and packing tape to keep them dry if they had to be 
dumped overboard during their sea voyage, police said.

If it had reached its destination, the cocaine would have been "stepped on" 
by the dealers, a term for diluting the narcotic with inert powder to 
enhance profits during street sales.

The hash, looking and feeling like fruit cake, was similarly encased.

All told, police seized approximately 314 kilograms of high-grade cocaine 
with a street value estimated by police at $75,600,000; 424 kilos of 
hashish valued at $10,580,000; 670 kilos of marijuana valued at $5,557,000; 
3,700 marijuana plants worth $3.7 million; 156 kilos of hash oil valued at 
$280,000.

Officers seized several houses, jewellery, gem stones, gold, furniture, 
cars, heavy duty mechanical equipment and both Canadian and U.S. cash, all 
of it valued at more than $8-million, police say.

Among those arrested are Steven "Bull" Bertrand, an associate of Maurice 
"Mom" Boucher, the notorious Quebec Hells Angels leader now in prison for 
ordering the murder of two prison guards.

Police allege Dean Roberts, 37, of Pierrefonds, Que., and Paul Gravelle, 
55, of Hamilton, were among the ringleaders.

Police described Mr. Roberts as "a door," referring to his alleged ability 
to arrange various elements of a smuggling operation.

Mr. Gravelle, has a long history of involvement in drug importation with 
convictions in Canada and the U.S., but once claimed police unfairly pick 
on him: "They make me out to be like Al Capone," he said.

The success of the operation stems from a special effort joint agencies are 
making to attack the point of entry for drugs rather than merely the street 
sales, said Staff Sergeant Jean-Pierre Boucher, of the Montreal Drug 
Section of the RCMP.

Ken Robertson, Chief of Police in Hamilton, who has spent much of his 
35-year career targeting organized crime, said this is the largest haul of 
drugs he has seen.

"This is a great day for the good guys," he said.
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