Thread: Head of notorious UN gang sentenced to 30 years

Head of notorious UN gang sentenced to 30 years
By GENE JOHNSON (AP) – 34 minutes ago

SEATTLE — A man who parlayed a group of rough friends, a disdain for the Hells Angels and what prosecutors describe as "laudable organizational skills" into one of Canada's most notorious gangs has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Clay Roueche, founder of the United Nations gang, so called because of its multiethnic character, appeared Wednesday for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik. Prosecutors had requested 30 years for Roueche, who pleaded guilty to drug and money laundering conspiracy charges last spring.

"I am absolutely certain that Mr. Roueche feared no one, took orders from no one and was the person making the decisions," Lasnik said.

Roueche, who long avoided the U.S. because he suspected he was wanted here, was arrested last year after he tried to attend a wedding in Mexico. Mexican authorities wouldn't let him enter the country, and at the request of the Americans, they put him on a flight home that landed first in Dallas. U.S. authorities were only too happy to take him into custody.

Prosecutors say he used a network of helicopters, planes, semi-trucks and other methods to move many tons of marijuana and cocaine and millions of dollars through Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and expanded the gang's influence through threats and violence. The UN has been blamed for a number of targeted killings, though Roueche was not charged with any acts of violence.

"What an accomplished man this court has before it today," assistant U.S. attorney Susan Roe told the judge, citing his "truly fine business mind."

Unfortunately, Roe argued, Roueche used that mind to cobble a collection of thugs from disparate cultures into a vast illicit empire. He kept immaculate account of transactions, knew what drugs were moving where, and paid the living expenses of Canadian associates who lived in the U.S. He claimed he collected $26 million a year from marijuana sales in Western Washington, then shipped that money south to buy the cocaine he moved into British Columbia.

He avidly read the crime blotters in local newspapers, which Roe described as "his own personal business page," and took to traveling around in armored cars. He once broke an associate's drug addiction by chaining him in a house and keeping him under guard for three months, Roe said.

Roueche, 34, founded the gang in British Columbia's Fraser River Valley in the late 1990s, and the moniker was in part a jab at the exclusion of minorities by the Hells Angels, with whom the group sometimes sparred.

In a brief address to the court, Roueche thanked his friends and family for their support.

"I promise I will not make the same mistakes and do better if I get a second chance," he said.

Roueche's attorney, Todd Maybrown, argued that there's no evidence he engaged in violence. He suggested a sentence of 15 to 20 years, indicating that his client was contrite and willing to change his ways. Some murderers get less than 30 years, he noted, and other high-level drug traffickers prosecuted in Seattle for similar crimes received 17 or 20 years.

Furthermore, the UN gang didn't own much of the cocaine it shipped, he said.

"They were brokering, helping move loads for other people," he said. "This is not the head of the Cali cartel or the Medellin cartel."

Lasnik was unmoved, noting the havoc that drugs cause — not only for users, but for the families of those involved in gangs.

U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan and Leigh Winchell, the special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle, said it was gratifying to put a top gang figure away for a long time. Winchell likened it to cutting the head off a snake, but acknowledged the UN gang remains active and that won't stop overnight.

"Have you ever weeded your garden?" he asked.

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I.C.E. Release

December 16, 2009

Canadian gang leader gets 30 years on drug, money laundering charges

Lengthy sentence sends deterrent message to other gang leaders

SEATTLE - The head of the United Nations gang, one of the most powerful and ruthless criminal organizations in Canada, was sentenced here in federal court Wednesday to 30 years in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to export cocaine and marijuana and engaging in money laundering.

Clay Franklin Roueche, 34, of Vancouver, B.C., Canada, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Seattle in October 2007, but the indictment remained under seal until his arrest in Texas in May 2008 as he attempted to enter Mexico. In his plea agreement, Roueche admitted that, beginning in 2005, he conspired to export cocaine from the United States into Canada, to import B.C. Bud marijuana into the United States, and to transporting and delivering the cash proceeds from the illegal drug sales.

The case against Roueche was the result of an extensive investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as part of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). It was investigated separately in Canada by the British Columbia Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and other Canadian law enforcement agencies.

Court documents reveal that Roueche oversaw the movement of tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana, thousands of kilograms of cocaine, and millions of U.S. dollars through several states and at least three North American countries. He utilized private airplanes, float planes, helicopters, cars, semi-trucks and coded Blackberry telephones in order to create a secret and successful organization that he planned to extend into the Far East and South America.

The investigation of Roueche spanned three years and resulted in numerous seizures - including 2,169 pounds of Canadian marijuana, 335 kilograms of cocaine, $2 million in U.S. currency, two pounds of crack cocaine, four pounds of methamphetamine, and five firearms. As the leader of the United Nations gang, prosecutors say Roueche was the public face of the violent, quasi-corporate group and the leader of its drug trafficking endeavors. "The group used guns, threats and violence to keep its contracted workers and gang members in line and ensure that no one informed on the group's activities," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

At sentencing Chief U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said this was "a day of reckoning" for Roueche. "There are ...children, brothers, sisters and parents suffering every day because of the cocaine and marijuana disbursed by the defendant and his fellow gang members. Children who go to bed hungry because parents spend the money they have feeding their habit.... These are not victimless crimes - they have a profound impact on the people, on neighborhoods and on the communities of our district."

"This sentence should once again serve as a warning of the consequences awaiting individuals who engage in large-scale criminal activity that puts Americans and Canadians alike at risk," said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Investigations in Seattle. "As head of one of the most ruthless and powerful criminal organizations operating in this region, Clay Roueche conducted himself with brazen impunity. Knowing that he will be spending many years behind bars is gratifying for ICE and the other local and international law enforcement agencies that worked tirelessly to see justice served in this case."

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE comprises four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.

Last Modified: Thursday, December 17, 2009
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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