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

www.canada.com

U.S. authorities to seal off drug tunnel
Allegedly built by B.C. men

Camille Bains
Canadian Press


July 25, 2005


A U.S. drug official enters a tunnel between Canada and the U.S that was used to smuggle marijuana. (CP)

VANCOUVER -- Officials in the United States' Drug Enforcement Administration are working to permanently seal off a tunnel that was constructed to smuggle marijuana from British Columbia.

Joe Giuliano, deputy chief of Border Patrol in Blaine, Wash., said Monday that military and law enforcement personnel are discussing the use of a hardening foam that would be injected into the tunnel to close it off. "Digging through that will be a heck of a lot harder than digging through the dirt in the first place," Giuliano said.

"I'm pretty confident that it's down for the count once that stuff goes in."

American officials had been monitoring the construction of the 110-metre tunnel since earlier this year after Canadian border personnel alerted them to the possibility that a tunnel was being dug between the two countries.

A joint investigation revealed that three B.C. men were allegedly involved in building the tunnel equipped with electricity, ventilation, wood supports and ribbed steel bars to reinforce it.

Construction was finished earlier this month, and U.S. police arrested the Surrey, B.C., men last week after they snuck across a load of pot.

The tunnel stretched from a metal hut in Langley, B.C., to a point underneath the living room of a house in Lynden, Wash., where police had installed cameras and microphones.

Giuliano said he has almost three times the staff since the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United Sates to be the eyes and ears at the border crossing in Blaine.

Conservative MP Mark Warawa, who toured the Langley property where the elaborate tunnel began, said the Canadian government needs to follow the U.S. example and increase the number of RCMP officers between border points.

"Without adequate resources we can't adequately protect Canada," Warawa said.

More cocaine from the U.S., often exchanged for B.C. marijuana, could have made its way back to Canada had the tunnel not been discovered, he said.

"These people are not sneaking in jugs of milk."

Some of the 160 border crossings have only one officer on patrol so more Mounties need to monitor between crossings, Warawa said.

RCMP Supt. Bill Ard, in charge of border integrity, said that unlike in the U.S., where borders are patrolled, the RCMP does no such job.

However, after 9-11, Ottawa funded 24 Mounties across Canada to work in the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams that exchange information with U.S. officials, Ard said.

"They are working as a team except we're not in the same office," he said.

"Because of limited resources the approach we're taking is targeting areas of the border that we think are being exploited because of whatever intelligence we have or we're targeting organized crime groups."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/642 ... unnel.html

Friday, March 3, 2006 · Last updated 5:20 p.m. PT

Third border tunnel defendant pleads guilty

By GENE JOHNSON
AP LEGAL AFFAIRS WRITER

SEATTLE -- The last of three men charged with digging a sophisticated drug-smuggling tunnel under the U.S.-Canadian border pleaded guilty on Friday, two days after a Senate bill was introduced to make cross-border tunneling punishable by 20 years in prison.

Timothy Woo faces at least five years in prison and a maximum fine of $2 million when he is sentenced for conspiracy to smuggle marijuana, as do Francis Devandra Raj and Jonathan Valenzuela, who previously entered guilty pleas.

All three are from Surrey, British Columbia. They were arrested last July, shortly after they finished the 360-foot tunnel just north of Lynden - the first tunnel discovered along the U.S.-Canadian border. It ran from the living room of a home on the U.S. side to a boarded-up Quonset hut on the Canadian side.

Border guards noticed construction materials being brought into the hut, and loads of dirt coming out, and investigators used the Patriot Act's provision for "sneak-and-peek" search warrants to examine the tunnel and set up cameras to monitor it.

The investigators allowed three marijuana-running trips to take place in the tunnel in hopes of learning more about the suspects and whether they were involved in a wider drug ring. In each case the defendants were tailed as they left the tunnel.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash; Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would make financing or building a cross-border tunnel punishable by 20 years in prison. Though it is illegal now to avoid examination at the border, tunneling is not specifically a crime.

"This is an issue of national security," Cantwell said. "We need to keep drugs out of our communities and terrorists out of our country."

Since Sept. 11, 2001, 35 border tunnels have been discovered in the United States - all but one on the Mexican border, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"There's always a concern that this is a harbinger of future events," U.S. Attorney John McKay said Friday. "We have to stay vigilant."

McKay said he could not comment specifically on the proposed legislation.

However, he said creating harsh penalties for tunnel financing and construction could actually hinder the efforts of law enforcement. Canadian authorities were extremely reluctant to allow the drug smugglers to make runs through the tunnel for fear that they might get away. U.S. investigators shared that concern, but convinced the Canadians it was essential for building the case against the three suspects and for conducting a broader investigation.

If tunnel-building itself carries a 20-year sentence, Canadian authorities could argue that American prosecutors don't so much need to verify what suspects are using the tunnel for, McKay suggested.

Cantwell spokeswoman Charla Neuman said the legislation is designed to give investigators more options.

"You can still convince the Canadians that monitoring is necessary," Neuman said. "And say the Canadians don't agree. At least you can still go after the criminals for something."

The investigators have not determined who financed the tunnel's construction, estimated to have cost more than $20,000.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Tunnel builders get nine years
Term should send message, judge says
PETTI FONG

VANCOUVER -- It cost $16,000 for lumber to build an underground tunnel between Canada and the United States and 90 kilograms of marijuana were transported before police shut down operations after months of watching the builders haul in wood and concrete.

Now a U.S. district court judge has given three B.C. men a nine-year sentence for building the 110-metre tunnel and importing marijuana.

Francis Raj, Timothy Woo, and Jonathan Valenzuela, all from British Columbia, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import marijuana and were sentenced yesterday in a U.S. district court in Seattle.

The lengthy jail sentences, almost double what their lawyers recommended, should send a clear message to drug traffickers, Judge John Coughenour said during sentencing yesterday.

"This is a serious problem and one we need to get a message out [about] to people in Canada," he said. "This is not a good way to make money."

It could have been an excellent way to make money for the men convicted, according to law enforcement officials.

Transporting drugs through the tunnel could have generated $165,000 (U.S.) per day.

To build the tunnel, two properties were purchased, one in Aldergrove for $595,000 (Canadian) and a second on the other side of the border, in Lynden, Wa., for $215,000 (U.S.). The cost to construct the tunnel, set out in court documents, included $16,156.80 for wooden boards, $1,742.82 for 125 bags of concrete to make the shaft and $259 for a garage door opener.

The plan was to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States just to cover the costs of the tunnel, the U.S. District Attorney calculated.

Mr. Valenzuela, one of the men sentenced, said 120 kilograms of cocaine was smuggled into Canada from the United States in June, 2005, a month before the three men were arrested.

The tunnel was a gold mine for the defendants, according to the testimony of one American law enforcement officer.

Mr. Raj, who paid for the building materials for the tunnel, offered one person his share of the tunnel for $3-million; 10 per cent was to be used to pay off Vietnamese gangs for a load of marijuana lost prior to the construction of the tunnel.

The tunnel was the first found between the United States and Canada, although tunnels between Mexico and the United States have been uncovered before. They were mainly used for smuggling illegal immigrants.

Canada's Border Services Agency first noticed the tunnel in February, 2005, and U.S. and Canadian police began monitoring activities using audio and video surveillance.

"The very essence of this crime was ignoring the international border," said Doug Whalley of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The three men can apply after a year to be transferred to a Canadian facility, but Mr. Whalley said his office will argue that they should serve their entire sentence in the United States.

While prosecutors argued the men should serve at least 10 years, their lawyers argued five years was appropriate.

Mr. Raj's lawyer, Richard Troberman, said there was no evidence in the hundreds of phone calls intercepted by police that the men were planning to transport more marijuana. The tunnel builders were entirely dependent on finding others who would be willing to pay them to transport marijuana.

The government's argument that a high volume of drugs needed to be transported in order to recoup the investment of tunnel construction is faulty and based on false premises, Mr. Troberman argued.

Aside from the properties purchased, the actual cost of the tunnel was around $23,000, he argued.

Mr. Troberman said his client's "industrial nature and work ethic is, somewhat perversely, exemplified by the construction of the tunnel.

"Without an engineering background, Francis managed to build the tunnel to high standards," his lawyer said. "The fact that three amateurs could line up the tunnel so that it ended in the right spot is somewhat remarkable."

Mr. Troberman said he is hopeful that Mr. Raj can devote his time and energy to more legitimate enterprises.

Mr. Raj, who presented letters from friends and supporters, including one who told the judge that the man regularly took the elderly to temple, said he left school, where he planned to study to be a pharmacist, in order to save enough money.

"Things didn't work out the way I planned," Mr. Raj, 31, said in his letter of apology to the judge. "I am sorry that I caused a threat to the security of the border."

Cost of the tunnel

Law-enforcement officials and the office of the U.S. Attorney calculated the cost of constructing the 110-metre tunnel under the B.C.-Washington border.

Using receipts, and checking the Internet sites visited by the three men convicted of building the tunnel, they pieced together the price (all figures are in Canadian funds, and don't include sales tax):

Two properties: Purchased on both sides of border, approximately $815,000.

Lumber: Two-by-six boards to line the tunnel, $16,156.80.

Concrete: 125 bags, used to make the shaft, $1,742.82.

Sump pumps: $288.

Garage door opener: $259.

Petti Fong

Originally Posted by Brian503a

Ran across another article with a photo.

Wow, that's some nice work! Can they build walls too?