Pubdate: Tue, 11 Apr 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
story.html?id=3e4106e1-35ca-4971-ac5d-ac6b7813d317
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers)

DRUG SMUGGLING NETS HEAVY TERMS FOR TRIO

A B.C. Supreme Court Judge Hands Down Sentences Of Eight To 18 Years

A B.C. Supreme Court judge on Monday dismissed defence pleas for  
leniency and sentenced three B.C. men to prison terms of eight to 18  
years for drug smuggling.

In her ruling, Justice Anne MacKenzie emphasized the damage cocaine  
has caused.

A suggestion by the defence that cocaine was benign was, she said,  
"entitled to little weight."

"They [the convicted] had no moral reservations about their  
activities or the destruction they would cause," the former  
prosecutor said in a lengthy ruling that took her an hour to read.

"They must be sentenced severely."

David James Oliynyk, a 55-year-old former member of the Hells Angels  
White Rock chapter, was labelled the boss in the conspiracy to import  
the drug. He received the stiffest sentence because it was his second  
offence.

In 1989, Oliynyk was convicted in the United States and sentenced to  
10 years in jail after he was caught in Washington State trying to  
buy 13 kilos of cocaine.

The Langley man, who ran a horse specialty-equipment business called  
Bit of Tack, kissed his 20-year-old daughter before being led away by  
sheriffs.

His middle-aged, balding partners -- Joseph Elwood Roger Lepage and  
Lloyd Allan Ferris -- embraced their respective partners and shook  
hands with a lone supporter who came to court for their sentencing.

Lepage, a 47-year-old with no previous criminal record who is part- 
owner of a video store in Peachland, was sentenced to 12 years.

He claimed that part of the reason he was involved in the drug scheme  
was his addiction to cocaine.

Lepage, described as "a good family man," was consuming between one  
and two ounces of the drug a month at a cost of some $3,000, his  
lawyer told the court.

Ferris, a 59-year-old handyman from Abbotsford, considered the least  
culpable of the three, was sentenced to six years.

Also said to be a hard-working, well-liked individual in the  
community, Ferris asked MacKenzie for leniency because he suffers  
from multiple sclerosis and related health problems.

His lawyer suggested he be given a jail term of two-years less a day  
so he would be eligible for a conditional sentence that could be  
served in the community.

MacKenzie was unmoved. Such a punishment, she said, was "most  
inappropriate."

Police charged the three men in the summer of 2001, some six months  
after U.S. authorities caught Ferris driving north through Oregon in  
a truck carrying 32 kilos of cocaine bound for Canada.

U.S. police seized the drug but, unsure whether Ferris was just a  
courier or bigger part of a larger scheme, let Ferris go to see where  
he would lead them. The investigation grew into a joint operation  
between RCMP and several U.S. police departments probing a number of  
criminal organizations.

Justice MacKenzie concluded the shipment was only part of a plan by  
the trio to regularly import the drug for huge profits.

They argued the load was one-time-only triggered by problems they  
encountered exchanging Canadian currency for American cash as a  
result of their other drug trafficking business.

According to their lawyers, the men made enormous profits selling  
B.C. Bud to California customers but ran into difficulties trying to  
launder the money.

"I thought American money was good everywhere," MacKenzie noted wryly  
during the trial.

In her judgment, she said it was "ironic" the accused would admit to  
large-scale marijuana smuggling in the belief it lessened their  
responsibility for other offences.

"It is hardly a mitigating factor that they were having trouble  
laundering money," she said.

MacKenzie pointed out that the wiretap evidence --63 intercepted  
phone conversations -- clearly indicated this was no one-shot deal.

The potential profit, she said, was between $832,000 and $1.88  
million if the cocaine were sold wholesale -- nearly double if sold  
in smaller quantities.

"These people were not naive novices in the drug trade," the judge said.

She called them experienced dealers and Oliynyk "well connected."

These three were among more than a score of individuals in a handful  
of independent organized criminal organizations charged by police as  
a result of a continent-wide investigation known as Project Exacto-Two.

It was the result of an earlier murder inquiry -- called Project  
Exacto -- into the Fraser Valley killing a decade ago of a marijuana  
grower and his wife.

Another group of B.C. men -- the last of those arrested in the  
roundup -- are charged with marijuana offences and are still before  
the court. Their trial is expected to last another two months.
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