U.S. and Canadian authorities bust cross-border smuggling ring

March 24, 2009 5:08 pm
Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard from the Drug Enforcement branch of the RCMP talks to the media about Operation Blade Runner during a press conference Tuesday at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle.
Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard from the Drug Enforcement branch of the RCMP talks to the media about Operation Blade Runner during a press conference Tuesday at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle.

Eight men will face charges related to smuggling after U.S. and Canadian authorities disrupted a drug-trafficking ring with ties to Western Washington.

The bust, called Operation Blade Runner because it involved trafficking by helicopter, lead to four arrests, as well as the seizure of two choppers, 600 pounds of B.C. Bud marijuana and over 80 kilograms of cocaine in the U.S.

Authorities in Canada made five other arrests and seized additional drugs.

Ten law-enforcement agencies, ranging from the Utah Highway Patrol to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), helped coordinate the takedown.

Representatives from the DEA, RCMP, and U.S. Attorney’s Office were at the Federal Courthouse in Seattle on Tuesday to provide details about the operation.

“We crippled this part of this organization,” said U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan. “Will somebody take their place? Probably, but we’re here, all of us, to ensure that they know we’re coming for them.”

One of the men arrested, Samuel Lindsey-Brown of B.C., committed suicide while in custody at the Spokane County Jail.

The other suspects face charges in the districts where they were arrested. Their cases will likely be consolidated in the Western District of Washington, where information about the smuggling ring originated, according to authorities.

According to authorities, Operation Blade Runner began in February when Utah troopers in Salt Lake City arrested Ross Legge of Alberta and Leonard Ferris of Las Vegas with 83 kilograms of cocaine.

One of the men was believed to be connected with an ecstasy-smuggling ring that was prosecuted in Western Washington last year.

Authorities determined that the cocaine snagged in Utah was destined for the Coleville National Forest in Eastern Washington, where it would be loaded onto a helicopter and swapped for marijuana from B.C.

Officers conducted a sting during the planned exchange, arresting Lindsey-Brown and seizing 426 pounds of marijuana.

Law enforcement used intelligence from those cases to break up another exchange six days later in Idaho, arresting Jeremy Snow of B.C. and seizing 174 pounds of marijuana flown in by chopper.

The RCMP arrested two other B.C men at the takeoff site in Canada, seizing 150 pounds of marijuana and 40,000 ecstasy pills.

“We think frankly, without having exact intelligence, that probably these helicopters were coming in at least once a week,” Sullivan said.

Canadian law enforcement took three additional B.C. men into custody using search warrants after determining they were connected to the smuggling ring.

The combined drugs seized by authorities are worth between $5.8 million and $7 million in the U.S., according to the DEA.

The value of the cocaine would have tripled once it crossed the border into Canada, according DEA Special Agent Arnold Moorin.

“You can see where the (value of) the commodity goes up appreciably once it passes the border from south to north,” he said.