Pubdate: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 Source: Chilliwack Times (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Chilliwack Times Contact: http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1357 Author: Kim Bolan ROUECHE OPERATED THROUGH VIOLENCE International drug lord Clay Roueche was arrested just last year, but the cracks in his United Nations gang started surfacing in early 2005. That's when UN helicopters flying clandestinely across the border hit the radar of police in both Washington state and B.C. According to U.S. court documents filed for Roueche's sentencing hearing this week, Chilliwack RCMP were already following some of Roueche's UN associates by the third week of 2005. They tracked a Robinson R22 helicopter CGZAR to Hangar No. 3 at Chilliwack Airport on Jan. 24, 2005. The hangar was rented by Joe Curry, who had used his credit card to purchase chopper fuel. Like Roueche, Curry was later charged with conspiracy to traffic in the U.S. Unlike Roueche, he remains in Canada. A day later, RCMP surveillance followed a car to Hangar No. 3 and later to a meeting with someone driving a vehicle registered to UN gang member Daryl Johnson. Johnson's car then was driven to UN Gang member Douglas Vanalstine's business in Abbotsford, where Vanalstine's car was also parked. Late last month, both Vanalstine and Johnson were charged in B.C. with conspiracy to traffic cocaine after an undercover operation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement. Vanalstine is also charged on the same indictment in Washington state to which Roueche has pleaded guilty. The U.S. Attorney was asking for a 30-year-sentence for Roueche, but his lawyer Todd Maybrown says that is disproportionate to those of others already convicted in the same international drug conspiracy. And there are many. Roueche may be the top-ranking UN gangster to go down on drug charges, but at least a dozen of his mules and smugglers were also arrested, charged, convicted and jailed in the U.S., according to courts. While his minions were being arrested, Roueche managed to evade capture and continued to run the lucrative smuggling business. Others Charged Include: - - B.C. resident Alexander Swanson was arrested on Aug. 12, 2005--off-loading UN pot in Washington. - - Calgary brothers Zachary and Braydon Miraback were arrested in Puyallup on Sept. 21, 2005 with 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of B.C. bud that had been flown across by helicopter earlier that day. - - U.S. warrants were issued for the arrests of two Fraser Valley men--Trevor Schoutens and Brian Fews--who had been followed across the border by U.S. agents several times as they facilitated the movement of marijuana. - - On Dec. 1, 2005, B.C. resident Greg Fielding was nabbed with 326 pounds (148 kg) of pot stuffed into hockey bags that had been dropped off by a white float plane on Soap Lake, near Spokane. - - Three months later, on March 14, 2006, B.C. pilot Kevin Haughton was arrested by the Colville Tribal Police after he abandoned a float plane with 314 pounds (142 kg) of marijuana and 24,000 ecstasy pills. Haughton told police he worked for Duane Meyer, a UN gangster based in Abbotsford who was gunned down last year in a targeted hit. - - Nine days later, two Vancouver women--Sharmila Kumar and Shailen Varma--were picked up at Soap Lake, where they had also picked up marijuana that had been flown in to the remote spot. - - On Sept. 25, 2006, Joshua Hildebrandt and Nicholas Kocoski were busted near Rimrock, Wash., after flying undetermined contraband in a rented Piper Cherokee from Chilliwack. - - Two days later, B.C. resident Daniel LeClerc was arrested near Yreka, Cal., with 144 kilograms of cocaine in his aircraft. He was en route to Chilliwack. - - On Oct. 3, 2006, Chilliwack realtor and close Roueche associate Michael Gordon, as well as Alexander Kocoski, crossed into Washington to bail Kocoski's brother and Hildebrandt out of jail. Gordon was later shot to death in Chilliwack on Aug. 20, 2008. Many of the Canadians arrested in the U.S. cooperated and pleaded guilty, providing information about their links in Canada. Others claimed not to know those behind the shipments they were ferrying or hauling across the border. But police in both Canada and the U.S. knew the common denominator was Clay Roueche and the UN gang. And they set their sights on bigger fish. Ultimately, it was the American authorities who brought him down. They recruited an informant named Ken Davis who had agreed to be one of Roueche's men in the U.S. , according to public documents filed in a Seattle court. With the assistance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Davis gathered incriminating evidence linking the UN leader to marijuana and cocaine smuggling and money laundering in the millions. Davis visited Roueche in Abbotsford and was given Roueche's contacts in California, to which he was asked to deliver about $500,000 a week in drug profits and return to Seattle with 25 kilograms of cocaine per trip. Roueche told Davis that he needed someone to manage his new drug "outlets" in San Jose, Calif., and that he was looking for drivers to get B.C. bud and ecstasy to Texas. In March 2006, Roueche asked Davis for help getting "the things I really like," which the U.S. Attorney says is a reference to firearms. Maybrown argues that the myth of Clay Roueche is bigger than the man himself. He said that while the U.S. Attorney claims in its sentencing documents that UN gang members "have become known for their reputation of extreme violence," no evidence of Roueche using violence has been entered. Two of Roueche's young daughters wrote letters to the judge, pleading to let "Daddy come out because we had lots of fun together." Maybrown pointed to Roueche's own words as an indication the gang leader has changed. "Until recently, I did not even think about, let alone understand, the consequences of my actions," Roueche said in a letter to the court. "I now understand that I have hurt myself, my family members and others." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake