http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12937230.htm

Click to watch video

Posted on Wed, Oct. 19, 2005



TIM CHAPMAN/HERALD STAFF
CUFFED: Christopher John Clarkson, center, is led out of the federal building in Miami on Tuesday by agents of the Diplomatic Security Service.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE


Feds: Weston man linked to Canadian gang

A businessman who had been living quietly in Broward County is unmasked as a convicted drug smuggler with alleged ties to a notorious gang of bank robbers

BY WANDA J. DeMARZO AND EVAN S. BENN

wdemarzo@herald.com


Using the identity of a dead child, a convicted drug smuggler on the lam for three decades lived undetected as a South Florida real estate agent for years -- until Tuesday, authorities say.

Federal agents, with guns drawn, stormed into Stephen Duffy's office inside Hollywood's Capital Real Estate Group about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. To the astonishment of his co-workers, they hauled Duffy away in handcuffs and charged him with passport fraud.

Federal agents said Duffy's real name is Christopher John Clarkson -- a Canadian native suspected of having ties to the infamous Stopwatch Gang that stole millions from banks and armored cars across North America in the 1970s and '80s.

Clarkson, 59, has lived with his wife in Weston for the past four years. By all accounts, he appeared to be nothing more than a businessman who attended company functions with his wife and owned a vacation home on Sanibel Island.

But authorities said Duffy was wanted by Canadian authorities after he and Thomas Harrigan, both of whom were recruited by the Stopwatch Gang for a drug smuggling operation, skipped town in the middle of their 1976 trial.

Clarkson, a TV producer in Canada, stole the identity of a 4-year-old who died in Northern California in 1948 and moved to California and later Florida, authorities said.

A routine check of his passport by federal authorities several months ago revealed his driver's license belonged to a dead person. When further checking revealed a disorderly conduct arrest in 1991 and his fingerprints showed he was a fugitive, the jig was up.

The Stopwatch Gang, authorities say, was led by Patrick Mitchell, Lionel Wright and Stephen Reid.

CAREFUL HEISTS

The men became known for orchestrating meticulous heists that never took longer than 90 seconds.

Sgt. Nathalie Deschenes, a spokeswoman for the Ottawa Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Clarkson wasn't an active member of the Stopwatch Gang but was involved with one of their crimes -- a cocaine smuggling deal.

''He wasn't your typical drug dealer,'' said Greg Weston, a reporter for The Toronto Sun who authored the 1992 book The Stopwatch Gang.

Weston said Clarkson is a member of a prominent, politically connected Canadian family. His uncle, Stephen Clarkson, is a political scientist who teaches at the University of Toronto and is considered Canada's political guru. Stephen Clarkson's ex-wife, Adrienne Clarkson, is the former governor general of Canada and technically the country's head of state, Weston said.

''He was a bit player in the whole deal,'' Weston said of Clarkson's involvement with the Stopwatch Gang.

The gang's exploits were detailed in seven movies -- including Point Break in 1991 and The Heist in 2001.

Clarkson became involved with members of the gang when Harrigan asked him to go to Curacao to pick up a suitcase containing $1 million in cocaine and take it back to Canada, authorities said.

But the gang's inside guy at the airport in Canada -- a baggage handler -- kept missing the suitcase. Eventually, police were tipped off and arrested gang members Mitchell, Wright, Reid and Harrigan, as well as Clarkson, in 1975.

Clarkson, while on the lam in California, was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison.

Harrigan was captured in 1990 in upstate New York and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The Diplomatic Security Service, which routinely checks driver's licenses and passport applications, recently discovered Clarkson's real identity, and he was arrested Tuesday on charges of passport fraud.

If he's extradited, he will have to serve his Canadian jail sentence, authorities said.

Clarkson was caught off-guard when agents caught up to him Tuesday.

''He was definitely stunned,'' said Ed Moreno, special agent-in-charge for the Diplomatic Security Service. ``But he didn't ask us any questions. He knew why we were there.''

No one at the Hollywood real estate company had any idea Duffy had a secret past.

''The staff is all pretty shaken,'' said Alan Brown, spokesman for Capital Real Estate Group.

Duffy had been renting office space from Capital Real Estate's 4000 W. Hollywood Blvd. location for about a year. His firm, Duffy & Associates, expanded from one office unit to two earlier this year, Brown said.

''Steve paid his bills on time. He showed up every morning for work on time,'' Brown said. ``Nobody had any idea he was anything but a normal guy.''

Duffy talked with co-workers about the vacation home he and his wife share on Sanibel Island and how he traveled there on weekends, Brown said. The couple attended company functions together.

''This is all very weird because he's just the nicest guy,'' Brown said.

Duffy and his wife, Janice Caron, bought a two-story house in Weston in 2001, property records show. A woman who answered the telephone at the residence Tuesday refused to say whether she was Caron.

''I'd really like to delay all of this if possible,'' the woman said. ``I just don't have anything to say right now.''

KEPT TO HIMSELF

A next-door neighbor in Duffy's Country Isles Garden community said Duffy rarely chatted with other residents.

''He does not talk to anybody,'' said Elie Augustin. ``His wife is much more likely to talk to people around here.''

Augustin said the couple's home often appeared empty, and Caron would tell neighbors they had spent time at their Sanibel Island home.

''I'm really surprised, actually,'' Augustin said``You wouldn't think they were living as other people.''

Brian Andrews of Herald news partner WFOR-CBS 4, The Ottawa Citizen and The Toronto Sun contributed to this report.