Pubdate: Fri, 22 Sep 2006
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Bruce Owen, and  Kevin Rollason
Note: MAP archives articles exactly as published, except that our 
editors may redact the names and addresses of accused persons who 
have not been convicted of a crime, if those named are not otherwise 
public figures or officials

DRUG CHARGES STAYED IN HIGH-PROFILE CASE

THE son of a man implicated in an alleged cross-border ephedrine 
smuggling ring was one of seven people who had charges against them 
stayed in court yesterday.

[Name redacted], was among dozens of people swept up two years ago in 
an RCMP investigation into the bulk movement of ephedrine, which can 
be used to make the highly addictive street drug methamphetamine, 
across Canada and into the United States.

[Name redacted], 21, was originally charged with three counts of 
conspiracy to produce methamphetamine, conspiracy to export ephedrine 
and export of ephedrine. He's the son of [Name redacted], who's 
portrayed by police as the ringleader in the alleged smuggling 
scheme. He died last year.

In an earlier interview, [Name redacted], said he had done nothing wrong.

"Police kept asking me to tell on my father," he said. "I couldn't 
tell them anything because I didn't know."

The Crown also stayed a similar charge against [Name redacted]. [Name 
redacted], 36, is one of three Winnipeg men charged in June with 
eight counts each of first-degree murder in connection to a so-called 
internal cleansing of the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang in Ontario. 
[Name redacted], who is in custody in Ontario, had been charged with 
conspiracy to produce methamphetamine.

Charges were also stayed against[Name redacted], [Name redacted], 
[Name redacted], [Name redacted], and [Name redacted],

Federal Crown attorney Tony Kavanaugh offered no explanation why the 
Crown has stayed the charges.

Charges against others arrested in the case -- RCMP called it 
Operation Diversion -- remain before the courts in Winnipeg, Buffalo, 
N.Y., and Sacramento, Calif.

Police alleged huge shipments of ephedrine imported legally into 
Canada made their way onto the black market through a company in 
Thunder Bay, Ont. Some of the ephedrine was shipped to B.C. and some 
was smuggled in horse trailers across the U.S. border into Buffalo, 
where it was then couriered to California to be made into the methamphetamine.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine