Thread: Feds bust tunnel under U.S.-Canadian border

www.gazettetimes.com

Source: Feds bust tunnel under U.S.-Canadian border

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press writer

SEATTLE â€â€

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-6924.html

Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, said the source, a government employee who had been briefed by local law enforcement officials.

"Authorities had been monitoring construction for EIGHT MONTHS"?

"and sealed it Wednesday shortly after it opened"...making 3 to 5 arrests in the process.

What? Did they have a ribbon cutting or what?

Why would our authorities "watch" an 8 month tunnel construction instead of stop it the minute they started digging?

I wonder how many got in before they sealed it? Can they reopen it? Can they easily reconstruct it? Oh sure. It's alot easier to clean one out than dig a fresh one.

Oh Lordie...

Originally Posted by Judy

Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, said the source, a government employee who had been briefed by local law enforcement officials.

"Authorities had been monitoring construction for EIGHT MONTHS"?

"and sealed it Wednesday shortly after it opened"...making 3 to 5 arrests in the process.

What? Did they have a ribbon cutting or what?

Why would our authorities "watch" an 8 month tunnel construction instead of stop it the minute they started digging?

I wonder how many got in before they sealed it? Can they reopen it? Can they easily reconstruct it? Oh sure. It's alot easier to clean one out than dig a fresh one.

Oh Lordie...

It's called physical evidence. Also this method is used to apprehened more than just the diggers and to catch them with the dope in hand.

Yeah....I figured something like that...it's going to hard to haul that tunnel into court now!!

HELLO!!! DRUG SMUGGLERS--the Mexican border's wide open!! Digging a tunnel through Canada is like so unnecessary...

I mean duh

Lou Dobbs just showed the Tunnel. It has concrete walls, lights, and is one heck of a nice tunnel. They said this was a Billion Dollar drug business and they arrested 3 not 5. But it didn't look sealed, you could see right through it to the opening on the American side. Maybe they are sealing it with guards.

Ran across another article with a photo.




www.latimes.com

Suspected Smuggling Tunnel Is Closed
The elaborate passage, apparently for drugs, is the first found on the U.S.-Canada border.
By Tomas Alex Tizon
Times Staff Writer

July 22, 2005

SEATTLE â€â€

More information on the tunnel.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Accused tunnel builders are part of crime network, RCMP allege

By ROBERT MATAS

Saturday, July 23, 2005

VANCOUVER -- Three British Columbians accused of building a tunnel under the border to smuggle drugs into the United States are part of a network of organized crime that rivals the Hells Angels, RCMP Inspector Pat Fogarty alleged yesterday.

The Hells Angels is widely regarded as the benchmark for organized crime, Insp. Fogarty said in an interview. But the bikers are well known mainly because they identify themselves with patches on their back, he said.

"The reality is, there are many, many more, involved in activities that are far more lucrative, and they have decided to keep themselves completely out of the limelight," Insp. Fogarty said.

"These guys are organized crime working together to make money, no different than what the Hells Angels are doing except they keep a very low profile," he alleged.

After an extensive international investigation, U.S. authorities arrested three British Columbians on Thursday on charges of conspiracy to distribute and import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States through a well-constructed tunnel from a hut on the Canadian side of the border to a farmhouse on the U.S. side.

The accused have not responded publicly to the allegations yet.

Acquiring the properties and building the tunnel would have cost more than $1-million, Insp. Fogarty said. The 1.2-metre by 1.2-metre tunnel, running between one metre and three metres below the surface, was wired for lighting and included a sump pump to drain off water regularly and a mechanical winch to raise or lower cartloads of drugs. It is the first tunnel ever discovered on the Canada-U.S. border.

Insp. Fogarty, who led the RCMP's combined forces special enforcement unit during the investigation, said the police believe the people who constructed the tunnel associated with members of organized crime networks in B.C. that ship multimillion-dollar drug orders across the border.

"[The three accused] are very well known to police," he said.

They do not operate as part of a gang, he added. "It's organized crime using the expertise of each other to create an infrastructure that allows them to do what they need to do," he said.

Marijuana growers in B.C. operate independently of brokers who arrange markets in the United States for the drugs, he said. The truckers who transport the commodity are also independent.

"One day they woke up, or whatever, and they saw there was a market in moving product, a huge market," he said. "What these guys decided to do, creatively, is construct a tunnel," he alleged.

Police believe one of those arrested has some expertise in construction, another had access to financing, he said.

Each of the three men is alleged by police to have associates in the drug trade who would be interested in using the tunnel, he added.

They were going "to market the tunnel to the associates they know and to others -- they are well connected in the grand scheme of things -- and they could guarantee safe loads across that line," Insp. Fogarty said.

On the logistics of the operation, he said, "their whole infrastructure was only to do that. One would be the marketer, one would be involved in delivery. They did not need to grow marijuana. Their job was to move product across the line."

Insp. Fogarty said they would have to be well connected before they started the $1-million project. "You have to have a good history for these people to trust you. This is such expensive commodity. . . . People are not going to give it away unless they know who you are, you can be trusted and you have a good system in place."

Francis Devandra Raj, Timothy Woo and Jonathan Valenzuela were arrested in the case.

Mr. Raj, 30, owns the property where the Canadian side of the tunnel begins, according to an affidavit signed by Tracey Mendez, a special agent in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The RCMP says Mr. Raj has a criminal history for possession of marijuana and immigration violations, Mr. Mendez said.

Legal documents in Canada show that Mr. Raj leased a Ford four-wheel-drive last year and bought the property where the tunnel begins for $595,000. Two mortgages for $415,000 were taken out on the property. Mr. Raj is described as a manager on the documents.

Mr. Woo, 34, is a member of Mr. Raj's organization, Mr. Mendez stated in the affidavit. Mr. Woo was indicted in 2000 in the United States for conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana and was a fugitive.

Mr. Valenzuela, 27, was seen delivering marijuana in Washington State and coming out of the tunnel with Mr. Woo and Mr. Raj, Mr. Mendez stated in the affidavit.

Previously, he had been stopped by police near the tunnel entrance. At that time, he was with Mr. Woo and Mr. Raj and tools commonly used for digging were found in the truck.

Mr. Valenzuela was described as a student and insurance agent on legal documents in Canada. Revenue Canada has a lien on property he owns in Surrey for $9,695.

Earlier this spring, the council for the building in which he lives put a lien on the property for $2,086.

B.C. Provincial Court records show that Mr. Woo has been fined $1,500 in New Westminster court for providing false documentation in 1999.

A charge of possession of a controlled substance against Mr. Valenzuela in a Surrey court in 2000 was stayed.

A charge of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking against Mr. Raj was dismissed in Kamloops in 2001. However, Mr. Raj received a suspended sentence on a charge of possession in Burnaby in 2001 and was found guilty and fined for possession in Burnaby for a case that began in 2000.

New article.

seattletimes.nwsource.com

Drug tunnel stirs fears about northern border

By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter


In the most remote parts of the 4,000-mile border the United States shares with Canada, more than 200 roads snake between the two countries, miles from homes and shops â€â€