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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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International drug smuggling ring busted
#7751636 - 12/12/07 10:10 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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International drug smuggling ring busted December 12, 2007 - canada.com
`We’ve chopped the head off the snake' Over 100 people arrested and charged in Vancouver-based worldwide drug importing network
VANCOUVER — Yong Long Ye was the mastermind of a drug syndicate that was as complex as it was astonishingly profitable, according to police.
Ye, who lived on Vancouver’s Deering Island, just a stone’s throw from the sprawling homes and riding stables in the tony Southlands area, received courier packages containing up to $250,000 two to three times a week, police said.
They said he received more than $4 million over a three-month period — the profits from an operation that employed dozens of people. Those were among the details released today when police announced the dismantling of what Sgt. Bill Whalen called the largest syndicate yet cracked.
“Ye heads a very big organization,” said Whalen, who is with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit that led the investigation.
“We’ve chopped the head off the snake,” said Vancouver police Insp. Dean Robinson.
Seventeen Lower Mainland men — including Ye — have been arrested and are facing a variety of drugs and weapons charges. More than 100 people around the world will be arrested and charged, said police. They said the investigation led to the seizure of drugs with a wholesale value of $168 million.
According to police, the group imported thousands of kilos of cocaine from the United States and supplied local methamphetamine and ecstasy labs with precursor chemicals. It then used specially built boxes and luggage with hidden compartments to distribute the drugs throughout the Pacific Rim.
Police trying to crack the case had to deal with gang members who spoke Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Punjabi, and Hindi, as well as English and used elaborate codes to avoid detection.
The criminal empire stretched across the United States, Canada, Asia, and Australia and laundered profits through a complex system of bank accounts in Canada and Asia, police said.
They said Ye, 40, owned houses and condos in the Vancouver area worth $6 million, which they intend to seize under proceeds of crime laws.
Ye’s world began to unravel in October 2006 when U.S. drug enforcement officials learned that an organized crime group was importing large quantities of cocaine from Los Angeles into Canada.
The cocaine, packed in false-bottom boxes loaded into shipping containers, usually arrived by truck in Toronto, where a distribution network was set up. That information was passed on to B.C.’s Integrated Gang Task Force, which began to tug at the threads of Ye’s empire.
The Vancouver-based smuggling operation had an impressive command and control system, said Insp. Pat Fogarty of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
Fogarty commanded the investigation by the task force, which is made up of officers seconded from the RCMP and municipal police forces.
The 14-month investigation, named Operation Paragon, took investigators from the “violence of the streets right up to the boardroom of the drug trade,” he said.
Police said couriers carried large amounts of cash — which police said was proceeds of crime — from Toronto to Ye in Vancouver via commercial aircraft, with the usual shipment being $250,000.
“In a three-month period we estimate that between $4 million to $6 million in cash was transported,” Fogarty said.
Police also uncovered a network transporting drug precursors into the Lower Mainland, where they were used in the manufacture of ecstasy and methamphetamines in clandestine illegal laboratories.
Once the drugs were manufactured in Canada, they were distributed by drug couriers posing as tourists, who would take ecstasy and methamphetamines from Vancouver to Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, and Japan. The gang was also importing heroin into Canada from India and Pakistan.
Police displayed examples of suitcases usedPolice displayed examples of suitcases used by the gang. They had been altered to allow drugs to be stowed between the outer case and inner liner. Small boxes had also been built in a similar way. The boxes were filled with virtually worthless goods taken from thrift stores and sent overseas.
Police also seized 17 handguns and prohibited weapons, $2.1 million in cash, 5.5 tonnes of drugs, and $300,000 worth of vehicles.
Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force said the gang was responsible for bringing drugs and weapons into the Lower Mainland and was “one of the root causes of crime and violence” in local communities.
Special Agent Matt Ryan of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency was delighted with the results of the Canadian investigation.
“We couldn’t have asked for better cooperation or a better result,” said Ryan.
Standing behind stacks of drugs, weapons and cash that represented just a fraction of what police have recently seized, members of the various police agencies involved in the investigation attempted to put it into perspective.
“Gangsters and drug traffickers don’t respect borders; neither do the police,” said the Vancouver police’s Dean Robinson. “We know this will have a large impact on the drug trade in the Lower Mainland.”
Marianne Ryan, chief officer of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said the investigation was the largest and most complex of any drug investigation mounted in B.C. She said the public should be aware that police forces are working quietly and effectively against organized crime “and criminals should take note also.”
As for why the operation was based in Vancouver, Whalen said the proximity of a busy seaport, airport and a land border with the U.S. make it logistically an ideal place to run a drug-smuggling operation.
The Canadian investigators worked with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to identify gang members in California and with the Australian federal police to seize the Canadian-made methamphetamine and ecstasy there.
Approximate international seizures include:
Over 600 kg of cocaine Over 111 kg of methamphetamines 83 kg of ecstasy 26 units of heroin 1,200 kg of drug precursors including ephedrine and MDP2P 7,800 lbs of marijuana Real estate properties worth over $6 million Vehicles worth over $300,000 $2.1 million in cash 17 handguns and prohibited weapons
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somebody041
bud tester


Registered: 06/04/07
Posts: 476
Loc: California
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: veggie]
#7751760 - 12/12/07 10:39 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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wow, that is alot of drugs.
almost 4 tons of weed! i wonder how much space that actually takes up...
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knotty
n00b



Registered: 01/19/07
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: somebody041]
#7752099 - 12/13/07 12:00 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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holy moly
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CollegeGuy
Addict


Registered: 11/30/07
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: knotty]
#7752198 - 12/13/07 12:26 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Wow thats a big bust there goes the prices
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All posts from this account do not contain any factual or real events only ones that could happen.
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monstermitch
Growing in Bags Doesn't Work



Registered: 02/10/06
Posts: 3,911
Loc: Arizona Bay
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: veggie]
#7752227 - 12/13/07 12:33 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said: Approximate international seizures include:
Over 600 kg of cocaine Over 111 kg of methamphetamines 83 kg of ecstasy 26 units of heroin 1,200 kg of drug precursors including ephedrine and MDP2P 7,800 lbs of marijuana Real estate properties worth over $6 million Vehicles worth over $300,000 $2.1 million in cash 17 handguns and prohibited weapons
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ewikk055
token lurker.



Registered: 12/03/07
Posts: 241
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: monstermitch]
#7752653 - 12/13/07 06:18 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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yeah prices will probably sky rocket for h and e, yet everything else most likely won't be affected.
-------------------- whatever you interpret from my posts may/may not be fictional.
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ewikk055
token lurker.



Registered: 12/03/07
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: ewikk055]
#7752654 - 12/13/07 06:19 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I mean in those areas that this group was trafficking to.
-------------------- whatever you interpret from my posts may/may not be fictional.
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Cannabischarlie
Resident badass


Registered: 11/28/05
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: ewikk055]
#7752885 - 12/13/07 08:47 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I think it will make no impact. Just how many people are doing this anyway? Lots! they didnt cut the head off a snake, they cut the head of a hydra. now expect 3 more to fill in the gap.
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we could all use a little more sunshine.
yeah, she's funny and somewhat interesting. not a beauty queen, but not bad lookin. i'd feel quite honored to fuck janine garofalo. -tiny_rabid_birds
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RoosterCogburn
Fearless,one-eyed U.S.Marshall



Registered: 08/25/06
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: Cannabischarlie]
#7752896 - 12/13/07 08:56 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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He totally would have won the Anon Forum "Post your stash" contest...
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Cannabischarlie
Resident badass


Registered: 11/28/05
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: RoosterCogburn]
#7753079 - 12/13/07 10:26 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I am often surprised when these big timers with expensive profitable coke, meth, etc, actually sell Marijuana too. It is becoming less and less and less common for even some polydrug traffickers to even bother with it, seeing as its so bulky and smells up whatever they smuggle it in. that and domestic production is way up limiting the effectiveness of these huge syndicates in trafficking it. would you rather sell a pound of uncut coke or a pount of scwhag?
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we could all use a little more sunshine.
yeah, she's funny and somewhat interesting. not a beauty queen, but not bad lookin. i'd feel quite honored to fuck janine garofalo. -tiny_rabid_birds
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Ojom
member




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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: Cannabischarlie]
#7756104 - 12/13/07 09:52 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I find it unlikely that Vancouver based traffickers were smuggling schwag.
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Cannabischarlie
Resident badass


Registered: 11/28/05
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: Ojom]
#7757494 - 12/14/07 08:39 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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likely true, but I have found that even though "the good stuff" is worth considerably more, so is cocaine, and it takes up a lot less room than either and I dont think the smell is as strong. non brick sensimilla really starts to smell in large amounts.
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we could all use a little more sunshine.
yeah, she's funny and somewhat interesting. not a beauty queen, but not bad lookin. i'd feel quite honored to fuck janine garofalo. -tiny_rabid_birds
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2FiNiTe
ConsideratlyKilling Me



Registered: 06/12/06
Posts: 1,635
Loc: New England
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Re: International drug smuggling ring busted [Re: veggie]
#7762029 - 12/15/07 02:37 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I had a few guys I knew that were both Vietnamese, they were part of this particular ring. They used to live downstairs from me in FL, they snagged these guys last year. The operation there was called "Operation Sweettooth", apparently the same syndicate was pressing beans in Canada, shipping them all over the US to dealers. The two guys downstairs got nabbed with almost 100 grand in cash, 90,000 beans, 6 lb's of bud (shitty bud I might add), and some ak's, shotguns, and small arms.
Last I heard they were still looking for one of the guys. They were both pretty cool in spite of the broken English they spoke. Loc and Blue, lol good names. I'm positive this is the same group.
-------------------- "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." General Omar N. Bradley
Edited by 2FiNiTe (12/15/07 02:38 PM)
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