Posted on 06/29/2006 10:03:19 PM PDT by Clive
U.S. and Canadian officials say they have busted a massive drug-smuggling operation that involved helicopters transporting marijuana and cocaine across the border.
Authorities revealed on Thursday details of the two-year investigation, known as Frozen Timber, which began in November 2004 and led to the arrests of 40 people in the U.S. and six in Canada.
The smugglers would fly helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft into remote wooded areas in Washington state and B.C., including locations in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanagan National Forest, and North Cascades National Park, officials said. High-grade marijuana would be smuggled into the U.S. and cocaine into Canada.
Officials released videotape of the operation captured by surveillance cameras. It showed a helicopter flying into a wooded area in the Okanagan National Forest and using a sling to drop off a package alleged to contain 150 kilogram loads of marijuana, followed by a man rushing to it.
Another clip showed a package being dropped off in a different location in the national forest and taken away in a waiting truck.
Many of the Canadian pilots were not licensed to fly. In the last 13 months, at least two helicopters alleged to be connected to the smuggling ring crashed, resulting in the deaths of three people, officials said.
Restaurant shed used as helicopter base
U.S. and Canadian enforcement teams intercepted more than 17 drug loads, officials said, including one shipment in February 2005 involving five suitcases packed with a total of 149 kilograms of cocaine.
Officials seized about 3,640 kilograms of marijuana, 365 kilograms of cocaine, three aircraft and $1.5 million in U.S. currency.
One of the kingpins of the operation is alleged to be a B.C. pilot from the Fraser Valley area.
Darryl Gilles Desjardins, 45, allegedly used a shed behind a restaurant in the resort community of Harrison Hot Springs as a base for one of three helicopters used in the smuggling operations.
Some of the suspects have been charged, while others have already been tried, convicted and sentenced.
The leader of the drug ring, Robert Kesling, is now serving 17 years in a U.S. federal prison.
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Think any terrorists know??
Makes me feel better that they WERE detected, tracked for two years and then rounded up.
Sounds like things are being watched pretty good.
But there are those for whom nothing will be enough. Or as Thoreau said: "There are those who would find fault with the morning red if they ever got up early enough."
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
Makes me feel better too!! Actually Harrison Hot Springs is only a couple of hundred miles from me and is a really expensive resort town. We have attended many conventions at the Harrison Hot Springs Hotel. And Okanagan National Park runs right through where I live although it was obviously not our area of the National Park they were using.
I agree with you. This is why President Bush can't win for trying. The armchair critics just looooove to criticize but could they do a better job????? Doubt it!!
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