Pubdate: Sat, 24 Feb 2001
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Author: Lori Culbert, with files from Glenn Bohn Vancouver Sun

DRUG SMUGGLER OWNS SEIZED BOAT

Victoria's Philip John Stirling, Owner Of The Canadian Vessel 
Discovered To Be Carrying $300 Million Worth Of Cocaine, Was 
Sentenced In 1990 To Five Years In Jail For Several Cocaine 
Conspiracy Charges

A B.C.-bound fishing trawler at the centre of one of the largest drug 
seizures in the Pacific Northwest -- worth at least $300 million Cdn 
on the streets -- is owned by a Victoria fisherman with a history of 
drug smuggling.

Five Canadian men were arrested when the Western Wind was seized 
Thursday night off the coast of Washington, but U.S. officials won't 
say if Philip John Stirling, who bought the vessel in December, is 
among the group being detained.

The U.S. District Attorney's office in Seattle said names will not be 
released until charges are laid, and that is not expected to happen 
until next week at the earliest.

No one was at home Friday at Stirling's rural home in Metchosin, 
outside Victoria, where he lives with his wife Marlene and their 
teenage son.

Stirling, 46, pleaded guilty in 1990 to several cocaine 
conspiracy-related charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Court documents filed in civil court in Victoria regarding other 
cases involving Stirling indicate he owned a fish processing plant in 
the 1980s and sold it to create a commercial fishing venture with 
another couple in 1989. Stirling's wife also owned a federal 
government fishing licence that became the centre of a civil case in 
1997.

RCMP Corporal Grant Learned said authorities in the U.S. and Canada 
were alerted late last year to be on the lookout for Stirling's 
26.9-metre-long fishing trawler after the vessel was spotted acting 
suspiciously.

Then, on Wednesday, a Canadian Forces Aurora on a regular maritime 
patrol saw the boat again, heading northbound in international 
waters. U.S. authorities were notified and the vessel was tracked to 
the Strait of Juan de Fuca and seized off Port Angeles, Wash. by the 
U.S. Coast Guard.

"The boat was headed north when it was stopped, and it was quite 
close to the Strait of Juan de Fuca which ... is a dividing line 
[between the U.S. and Canada]," said U.S. Customs assistant special 
agent Charles McLeod.

On board, officials found 2.5 tonnes of cocaine in 101 bundles -- 
wrapped in what looked like used sugar sacks -- hidden in the bow 
section, McLeod said.

"An initial cursory inspection would not show [the cocaine]. It was 
hidden," he said.

Each sack was stamped "Colombia." McLeod said it will be part of the 
investigation to determine if the drugs came from that country, which 
is infamous for exporting narcotics.

McLeod, who has worked for U.S. Customs for 30 years, said to his 
knowledge it is the biggest seizure of cocaine ever made in that area 
of the coast.

He estimates it would be worth $45 to $60 million Cdn wholesale and 
at least $300 million when cut up and sold on the street.

"I've never seen a seizure this large of cocaine," said McLeod, who 
has worked in the region for 12 years.

A typical cocaine seizure for that part of the U.S. would be five to 
10 kilograms, he said.

The seizure would have also set records in B.C., and is more than all 
the cocaine typically seized across Canada in one year.

However, the country's largest seizure of cocaine was 4,223 kilograms 
in Quebec in 1992.

Learned said the size of the shipment indicates it was the work of 
organized crime.

"This is a very substantial amount of cocaine. Very few crime 
organizations world-wide could amass that amount of drug for 
shipment," he said.

The men are now in an Immigration and Naturalization Service 
detention facility in Seattle, where they will be held pending an 
immigration hearing.

However, if they are charged with criminal offences, they will be 
transferred to the custody of the department of justice, Assistant 
U.S. Attorney Lawrence Lincoln said.

Transport Canada documents show the Western Wind was recently owned 
by B.C. Packers Ltd., and then by a fisherman in Delta, before it was 
purchased by Western Wind Fisheries Inc.

Stirling is listed as the sole director of that company.

Darryl Henry, of Parksville-based French Creek Boat Sales, said the 
Western Wind was sold for $100,000 Dec. 15 from his Steveston sales 
lot. The deal was arranged through lawyers, and he did not know how 
the boat was financed.

"My salesman said the guy was a hard-dealing fisherman, grinding for 
the best price," Henry said.

Henry said the new owner took the 38-year-old boat out a few times 
before the sale was made, and did some work on it to prepare it for 
tuna fishing.

Last November, Stirling was interviewed by a Vancouver newspaper 
while sitting on the boat.

At that time, he was quoted as saying he had fished from the Queen 
Charlotte Islands to Mexico to New Zealand for salmon, hake, cod and 
tuna, but was angry at recent government quotas that prohibited him 
from making a living while fishing.

"I'm being driven out of my own country to make a living," he told 
the reporter.

A Canadian Press report in September 1990 said Stirling pleaded 
guilty to the cocaine conspiracy charges.

He was the last of seven people charged after an eight-month 
investigation by the Victoria city police drug squad and drug squads 
in the U.S.

His defence lawyer at the time, John Green, said then that Stirling 
had been a commercial fisherman in 1987 and then bought a 
fish-processing plant he built up until it employed 30 people.

In June 1988, he sold the plant and bought a 21-metre fishing boat, 
but ran into "unanticipated expenses" in getting the dragger ready to 
fish, Green said.

"His motive was not to be a drug trafficker for the rest of his 
life," Green said of his client in 1990.

Stirling was arrested in Vancouver on June 16, 1989, along with drug 
couriers, the court document says.

Court documents also show a John Philip Stirling was charged in 
Metchosin on Jan. 2, 1999 with possessing a controlled substance for 
the purpose of trafficking, after police seized three kilograms of 
marijuana. The charge was stayed the next year.
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