Pubdate: Thu, 21 Oct 2004
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Sorcha McGinnis, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers)

POLICE SHATTER MASSIVE CROSS-BORDER DRUG RING

CALGARY -- A multimillion-dollar network that saw drugs trucked from Canada 
into three U.S. cities has been dismantled and arrests made in the Calgary 
area, Vancouver and Los Angeles.

"The group's operations extended across Canada and into the U.S. with the 
majority of the activity being based in Alberta, Vancouver and California," 
Insp. Joe Loran of Alberta's Integrated Response to Organized Crime said.

"Partnerships were established with the RCMP Vancouver drug section and the 
California Inland Crackdown Allied Task Force. Once links were established 
there were independent investigations.

"The joint investigations were more efficient than any one of them would 
have been on their own," Loran said.

The investigation, which began in March, focused on the exportation of 
methamphetamine, ephedrine and marijuana to the U.S. The drugs were then 
sold or traded for cocaine, for importation and distribution in Canada.

The operation was allegedly supplying drugs to other organized crime 
groups, including the Hells Angels.

"The purpose of the methamphetamine and the ephedrine was to take it into 
the U.S. and use it (to buy) cocaine," said Loran.

The suspects were using commercial trucks to ferry the drugs to and from 
the U.S.

A seizure west of Calgary on July 21 uncovered drugs concealed in a secret 
compartment in the gas tank. The truck was en route from the Vancouver area 
to the U.S.

That seizure, and another in April, netted close to 20 kilograms of 
methamphetamine, 50 kg of ephedrine, two kg of cocaine and a half kg of 
marijuana.

The drugs are worth an estimated $2 million on the street and investigators 
say the large quantity of methamphetamine "in itself is a very significant 
seizure."

A total of 50 kilograms of cocaine, 11 kilograms of marijuana, 5,000 plants 
and approximately $1 million in cash were found in Vancouver, Chilliwack, 
Mission, Los Angeles and Bakersfield, Calif. since March.

The police operation also saw the seizure of 17 kilograms of cocaine in Del 
Bonita, Alta., in December 2003. Numerous assets, including houses and 
vehicles, will also be seized.

Insp. Ian Cameron, director of the Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta, 
says methamphetamine use and production is on the rise in Alberta, where 
its main ingredient, ephedrine -- a legal pharmaceutical product -- can be 
obtained more readily than the U.S.

Todd Joseph Holland, 32, of Calgary; Kenneth Leslie Douglass, 56, of 
Drumheller, Alta.; Robert Craig Friedman, 39, of Los Angeles; Robert Nicky 
Dellapenna, 34, and Robert Luigi Poloni, 37, both of Vancouver, each face 
one or more drug-related charges.

More charges are expected to be laid. 
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