alik_05
07-24-2005, 09:00 PM
B.C. Men Charged for Drug Tunnel - [War on Drugs]
3 men have been charged with digging a tunnel about the length of a football field beneath the Canada-U.S. border to smuggle marijuana. The men, all from Surrey, B.C., have been charged in Washington state with conspiracy to distribute and import marijuana after law enforcement officials discovered the 110-metre tunnel that starts underneath a Quonset hut in this Vancouver suburb and ends beneath the living room of a house in Lynden, Wash.
The tunnel, which is just a few hundred metres from a Canada-U.S. border crossing, ranges in depth between one to three metres and is reinforced with ribbed steel bars and wood supports. "It probably is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, tunnel that we've seen enter the United States," said Rod Benson, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
There have been 34 cross-border tunnels to the U.S. but the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday this is the first tunnel ever discovered between Canada and the U.S. Authorities believe the men had been digging for about a year. "We didn't give them enough credit. That's quite a venture to undertake," said Pat Fogarty, with the Organized Crime Agency of B.C.
Authorities believe the B.C. tunnel was completed in early July, but they believed the first time it was used was when they spotted three suspects with bags of marijuana. "There was 24-hour surveillance," Fogarty said. "We can guarantee that no weapons, or anything of that matter got through."
The Department of Homeland Security said the security implications resulting from the discovery of the tunnel are immense. "That tunnel could be used to smuggle aliens into the U.S.," agent Leigh Winchell told a joint Canada-U.S. news conference Thursday. "It could be used to smuggle equipment into the U.S. for those who could do harm to the U.S."
The U.S. Justice Department said 42 kilograms of pot were transported through the tunnel, loaded into a van and driven to a shopping mall in Bellingham, Wash., where the marijuana was loaded into another vehicle. That vehicle was stopped by the Washington State Patrol and the pot was seized.
Francis Devandra Raj, 30, Timothy Woo, 34, and Johnathan Valenzuela, 27, were scheduled to appear in court in Seattle on Thursday. "The arrests of three individuals and marijuana seizures are the result of a co-ordinated investigation and enforcement plan on both sides of the border," said Fogarty.
The "sophisticated" tunnel was built using equipment including shovels, winching and carting systems to remove the dirt, said Fogarty. Investigators used a machine that can "see" underground, a video-equipped robot, a drug-sniffing dog and an air horn to find the tunnel. The tunnel will be destroyed.
Canadian officials estimate 1.7 million kilograms of B.C. pot are produced annually, with as much as 50% of it smuggled to the U.S.
Canada.com
Thanks for this, LexLaw
3 men have been charged with digging a tunnel about the length of a football field beneath the Canada-U.S. border to smuggle marijuana. The men, all from Surrey, B.C., have been charged in Washington state with conspiracy to distribute and import marijuana after law enforcement officials discovered the 110-metre tunnel that starts underneath a Quonset hut in this Vancouver suburb and ends beneath the living room of a house in Lynden, Wash.
The tunnel, which is just a few hundred metres from a Canada-U.S. border crossing, ranges in depth between one to three metres and is reinforced with ribbed steel bars and wood supports. "It probably is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, tunnel that we've seen enter the United States," said Rod Benson, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
There have been 34 cross-border tunnels to the U.S. but the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday this is the first tunnel ever discovered between Canada and the U.S. Authorities believe the men had been digging for about a year. "We didn't give them enough credit. That's quite a venture to undertake," said Pat Fogarty, with the Organized Crime Agency of B.C.
Authorities believe the B.C. tunnel was completed in early July, but they believed the first time it was used was when they spotted three suspects with bags of marijuana. "There was 24-hour surveillance," Fogarty said. "We can guarantee that no weapons, or anything of that matter got through."
The Department of Homeland Security said the security implications resulting from the discovery of the tunnel are immense. "That tunnel could be used to smuggle aliens into the U.S.," agent Leigh Winchell told a joint Canada-U.S. news conference Thursday. "It could be used to smuggle equipment into the U.S. for those who could do harm to the U.S."
The U.S. Justice Department said 42 kilograms of pot were transported through the tunnel, loaded into a van and driven to a shopping mall in Bellingham, Wash., where the marijuana was loaded into another vehicle. That vehicle was stopped by the Washington State Patrol and the pot was seized.
Francis Devandra Raj, 30, Timothy Woo, 34, and Johnathan Valenzuela, 27, were scheduled to appear in court in Seattle on Thursday. "The arrests of three individuals and marijuana seizures are the result of a co-ordinated investigation and enforcement plan on both sides of the border," said Fogarty.
The "sophisticated" tunnel was built using equipment including shovels, winching and carting systems to remove the dirt, said Fogarty. Investigators used a machine that can "see" underground, a video-equipped robot, a drug-sniffing dog and an air horn to find the tunnel. The tunnel will be destroyed.
Canadian officials estimate 1.7 million kilograms of B.C. pot are produced annually, with as much as 50% of it smuggled to the U.S.
Canada.com
Thanks for this, LexLaw